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THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 




ABRAHAM LINCOLN 

From the statue by Augustus Saint-Gaudens at Chicago, 111. 



THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 



BY 

R. M. WANAMAKER 

A JUDGE OF THE SUPREME COURT OF OHIO 



NEW YORK 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1918 



Copyright, 1918, bt 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Published March, 1918 



APR -4 1918 



^ ^.^'^ 




A492817 



AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED TO THE 
MEMORY OF MY MOTHER 

LAURA SHOENBERGER WANAMAKER 

WHO DEPARTED THIS LIFE 

FEBRUARY 26, 1890 

HER LOVE AND AMBITION HAVE BEEN THE 

GREAT INSPIRATION OF MY LIFE 

THE AUTHOR 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAOB 

I. Why This Book? 3 

II. Lincoln's Passion for Knowledge ... 5 

III. Lincoln's Passion for Knowledge 

(continued) 14 

IV. His Passion for Justice 30 

V. Lincoln Enters Politics 42 

VI. Lincoln Enters Politics (continued) . . 59 

VII. Lincoln the Lawyer 77 

VIII. Lincoln the Lawyer (continued) ... 94 

IX. Lincoln the Lawyer (continued) . . . 113 

X. Lincoln the Logician 124 

XL Lincoln the Logician (continued) . . . 134 

XII. Lincoln Language 155 

XIII. Lincoln on Government 172 

XIV. Lincoln on Slavery 188 

XV. Lincoln's Interpretation of the Declara- 
tion of Independence 205 

XVI. Gettysburg Oration 218 

XVII. Lincoln's Great Springfield Speech . .231 

XVIII. Lincoln at Cooper Union 249 

XIX. Lincoln's First Inaugural Address . . . 280 

XX. Lincoln the Leader 297 

vii 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER 

XXI. 

XXII. 

XXIII. 

XXIV. 



Lincoln the Leader (continued) 

Lincoln on Peace 

Lincoln the Most Unselfish Man 
Lincoln's Miscellaneous Views . 



PAGE 

310 
333 
345 
350 



THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 



CHAPTER I 
WHY THIS BOOK? 

Most of us have a smattering of the hfe of Lincoln, 
many of us have made a general surface study of it. 
But Lincoln lived in the subsoil of human thought 
and soul. He dug down deep into every subject-matter 
claiming his attention. If we would know and ap- 
preciate him we too must dig down deep among the 
roots, the foundations, of his personal, professional, 
and public life. 

He lived largely in the world of thought. How he 
thought, what his mental methods were, how he 
developed his great mental efficiency in law, logic, 
language, and public leadership, should be a matter 
of interest and inspiration to that great army of men 
and women who have learned to love Lincoln. 

This is an era of efficiency. We all understand 
physical efficiency, industrial efficiency, financial effi- 
ciency, and the like, and rapidly we are coming 
to understand something of educational efficiency. 

Lincoln's life is a demonstration of the highest type 
of efficiency for every situation he met. 

How did he attain it ? 

Humihty's child, he became humanity's man. How ? 

How did this backwoods boy become a master of 
men? 

How did he pass from the pioneer life, with all the 
privation and primitiveness of the frontier, and grow 
3 



4 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

to be the greatest lawyer of his State, the greatest or- 
ator of his day, and the greatest statesman of his age ? 

In short, what was the paramount philosophy of 
his life, as gathered from what he said, from what he 
did, from how he Hved and how he died? 

To answer some of these questions, as they have 
not been answered heretofore, is the primary and para- 
mount purpose of this volume. 

To this end I have selected and assembled from the 
authenticated records as compiled by others the signif- 
icant and symptomatic facts of his life, and have ex- 
amined carefully his words and works. 

I want to present what I conceive to be, not merely 
his creed but his code of conduct, with his chart, com- 
pass, and chain ; and how he used this chart, compass, 
and chain in each day's duties, particularly as a lawyer 
at Springfield and as President at Washington. 

But more important than all else is to present to 
young America, and to the world, our type of true 
Americanism. 

History, after all, is only the sum of big biography, 
the product of the leadership and life of the great men 
with benevolent ideas and ideals that preserve and 
promote our American institutions, our spirit of lib- 
erty and democracy practically applied. 

We can best study Americanism through some great 
American, and in the foregoing respects, by common 
consent, at home and abroad, the name of Lincoln 
leads all the rest. We are told that the world must 
be made ''safe for democracy." 

But what is democracy? Who better understood 
and expressed it than Lincoln? What were his views 
on government, its powers, its purposes? That is, 
what did Lincoln himself say about it? 



CHAPTER II 

LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 

"A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth 
strength." — Proverbs 24 : 5. 

Within a twelvemonth, within a circle described 
by a fifty-mile radius, there were born in the State of 
Kentucky two boys destined to be the great popular 
leaders on the opposite sides of a great cause — Abra- 
ham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis. 

When quite young, Davis moved south to Missis- 
sippi, to slavery and aristocracy; Lincoln moved north 
to Indiana and lUinois, to liberty and democracy. Had 
their routes been reversed, then what? 

Davis was educated at a college in Mississippi, 
Transylvania University at Lexington, Ky., and later 
was graduated at West Point. 

Lincoln never spent a day in a public school or col- 
lege. 

How, then, did he become the leading lawyer of 
Illinois, the only man of his State who dared to de- 
bate with Douglas? 

How did he become the logician at Cooper Union, 
the orator at Gettysburg, the emancipator of a race, 
the savior of a country, and the idol of the patriotic 
world ? 

Great men, as a rule, have had great mothers rather 
than great fathers. This was peculiarly true as to Lin- 
coln. Though his mother died when he was but nine 
5 



6 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

years of age, she had given him the blessings of her 
meagre education, had helped him to read and write, 
had inspired him with a love for learning, and left such 
mental and moral impress upon the lad that he after- 
ward said: 

''All that I am and all that I hope to be, I owe to 
my angel mother. Blessings on her memory." 

Herndon,* in his biography, relates an intimate 
talk that he once had with Lincoln concerning the 
latter's mother : 

''She was the daughter of Lucy Hanks and a well- 
bred but obscure Virginia farmer or planter, and he 
(Lincoln) argued that from this last source came his 
power of analysis, his logic, his mental activity, his 
ambition, and all the quaUties that distinguished him 
from the other members and descendants of the Hanks 
family." f 

Perhaps the longest personal statement he ever made 
concerning himself was made to J. W. Fell, in 1859, 
in his own handwriting: 

"I was born February 12, 1809, in Hardin county, 
Kentucky. My parents were both born in Virginia, 
of undistinguished families — second families, perhaps 
I should say. My mother, who died in my tenth year, 



* I shall very often quote from William H. Herndon 's biography of 
Lincoln in two volumes. This biography furnishes the basis of Lin- 
coln's life until he became President of the United States, and furnishes 
the basis of most of the rehable facts of Lincoln's Ufe as used by other 
biographers. 

Members of Hemdon's family Uved in and about New Salem, and 
Herndon liimseK became acquainted with Lincoln shortly after he en- 
tered the State Legislature at Springfield. He was the junior partner 
of Lincoln from 1843 until March 4, 186L Taken altogether, he had 
unusual opportunities to know and study Abraham Lincoln, and to 
write about him at first hand. Moreover, no one ever accused Herndon 
of overstating anything in Lincoln's favor. 

t Vol. I, p. 3. 



LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 7 

was of a family by the name of Hanks. . . . My pa- 
ternal grandfather, Abraham Lincoln, emigrated from 
Rockingham county, Virginia, to Kentucky about 
1781 or 1782, where, a year or two later, he was killed 
by the Indians, not in battle, but by stealth, when 
he was laboring to open a farm in the forest. 

"My father (Thomas Lincoln) at the death of his 
father was but six years of age. By the early death 
of his father, and the very narrow circumstances of 
his mother, he was, even in childhood, a wandering, 
laboring boy, and grew up literally without education. 
He never did more in the way of writing than bung- 
lingly to write his own name. ... He removed from 
Kentucky to what is now Spencer county, Indiana, 
in my eighth year. ... It was a wild region, with 
many bears and other animals still in the woods. . . . 
There were some schools, so-called, but no qualifica- 
tion was ever required of a teacher beyond 'readin' 
writin', and cipherin' to the rule of three.' If a 
straggler supposed to understand Latin happened to 
sojourn in the neighborhood he was looked upon as a 
wizard. ... Of course, when I came of age I did not 
know much. Still, somehow, I could read, write, and 
cipher to the rule of three. But that was all. . . . 
The little advance I now have upon this store of educa- 
tion I have picked up from time to time under the 
pressure of necessity. 

"I was raised to farm work . . . till I was twenty- 
two. At twenty-one I came to Illinois, — Macon 
county. Then I got to New Salem, . . . where I re- 
mained a year as a sort of clerk in a store. Then came 
the Black Hawk war; and I was elected captain of 
a volunteer company, a success that gave me more 
pleasure than any I have had since. I went into the 



8 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

campaign — was elated — ran for the Legislature the 
same year (1832), and was beaten — the only time I 
ever have been beaten by the people. The next, and 
three succeeding biennial elections, I was elected to 
the Legislature. I was not a candidate afterward. 
During the legislative period I had studied law and 
removed to Springfield to practice it. In 1846 I was 
elected to the lower house of Congress. Was not a 
candidate for re-election. From 1849 to 1854, inclu- 
sive, practised law more assiduously than ever before. 
Always a Whig in politics, and generally on the Whig 
electoral tickets, making active canvasses. I was losing 
interest in politics when the repeal of the Missouri 
Compromise aroused me again. 

''If any personal description of me is thought de- 
sirable, it may be said that I am in height six feet four 
inches, nearly; lean in flesh, weighing on an average 
one hundred and eighty pounds; dark complexion, 
with coarse black hair and gray eyes. No other marks 
or brands recollected." 

An unusually modest estimate of one who within 
a year was to be elected President of the United 
States. 

This scarcely reads like the story of one who had a 
"passion for knowledge." 

After Lincoln's nomination for the presidency, he 
was repeatedly requested to furnish for his friends 
and biographers the story of his life. 

One of the earliest to arrive at Springfield, 111., 
was J. L. Scripps of the Chicago Tribune, a paper very 
friendly to Lincoln. Scripps wanted to prepare and 
pubHsh the story of his life. 

" Why, Scripps," said he, '' it is a great piece of folly 
to attempt to make anything out of me or my early 



LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 9 

life. It can all be condensed into a single sentence, 
and that sentence you will find in Gray's ' Elegy.' 

"'The short and simple annals of the poor.' 

''That's my life and that's all that you or anybody 
else can make out of it." * 

For the purpose of knowing more about the metal 
in his making, than this modest man has himself given 
us, a fuller statement will be made of his earlier as 
well as later days. 

Lincoln was born in a log cabin of Kentucky, near 
Hodgenville — a cabin that was doorless, windowless, 
and floorless. Oh, of course, it had a floor. It was 
dirt furnished by good old Mother Earth. 

If there was any log cabin in Kentucky ruder or 
more primitive than the Lincoln cabin, it has not been 
discovered. 

But few incidents of consequence occurred in Ken- 
tucky that are really important or indicative of char- 
acter in the boy's life. He several times heard Parson 
Elkins preach, the Baptist minister of that circuit. 
The probabihties are this gave him his first inspira- 
tion for public speaking. 

As to schools, they were few and four miles at least 
from home. Two or three months at most would 
cover the entire time at irregular intervals that he re- 
ceived the benefit of even the most elementary 
teachers. 

When young Abraham was but seven, the Lincoln 
family moved to what is now Spencer County, in 
southern Indiana, just north of the Ohio River. 

The first family residence in Indiana was but Uttle, 

* Herndon, vol. I, p. 2. 



10 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

if any, improvement over the home in Kentucky. It 
was scarcely creditable to a carpenter's handiwork. 

Herndon says: 

"The structure when completed was fourteen feet 
square and was built of small unhewn logs. In the 
language of the day it was called a 'half faced camp,' 
being enclosed on all sides but one. It had neither 
floor, door, nor windows. In this forbidding hovel 
these doughty emigrants braved the exposure of the 
varying seasons for an entire year. At the end of that 
time Thomas and Betsy Sparrow followed, bringing 
with them Dennis Hanks and to them Thomas Lincoln 
surrendered the 'half faced camp' while he moved 
into a more pretentious structure, — a cabin enclosed 
on all sides." * 

This cabin is further described by Herndon as fol- 
lows: 

"It was of hewed logs, and was eighteen feet square. 
It was high enough to admit of a loft, where Abe slept, 
and to which he ascended each night by means of pegs 
driven in the wall. The rude furniture was in keeping 
with the surroundings. Three-legged stools answered 
for chairs. The bedstead, made of poles fastened in 
the cracks of the logs on one side, and supported by 
a crotched stick driven in the ground floor on the other, 
was covered with skins, leaves, and old clothes. A 
table of the same finish as the stools, a few pewter 
dishes, a Dutch oven, and a skillet completed the house- 
hold outfit. In this uninviting frontier structure the 
future President was destined to pass the greater part 
of his boyhood." f 

Holland confirms this account in the following 
language : 

* Herndon, vol. I, p. 19. t Herndon, vol. I, p. 20. 



LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 11 

"It is very difficult for any one bred in the older 
communities of the country to appreciate the extreme 
humility of border life, the meagerness and meanness 
of its household appointments, and the paucity of its 
stimulants to mental growth and social development. 
The bed in which the elder Lincolns, and, on very cold 
nights, the little Lincolns, slept, during their j&rst 
years in Indiana, was one whose rudeness will give a 
key to the kind of life which they lived there. The 
head and one side of the bedstead were formed by 
an angle of the cabin itself. The bed-post standing 
out into the room was a single crotch, cut from the 
forest. Laid upon this crotch were the ends of two 
hickory sticks, whose other extremities were morticed 
into the logs, the two sides of the cabin and the two 
rails embracing a quadrilateral space of the required 
dimensions. This was bridged by slats 'rived' from 
the forest log, and on the slats was laid a sack filled 
with dried leaves. This was, in reality, the bed of 
Thomas and Nancy Lincoln." * 

In the midst of such primitve and unfavorable 
surroundings, the boy really began his mental and 
moral development: Not at any private school for 
boys, not at any academy, college, high school, or 
even the most elementary pubhc school, but solely 
with the help of his mother, the few books that he 
could borrow in the neighborhood, and occasionally 
some transient teacher for a month or two. 

Some still small voice within seemed to cormnand 
him like Paul did Timothy of old: 

"Stir the gift of God which is within thee." 

What these gifts were and how he stirred them in 
his boyhood life should be of special interest. 

* Holland, p. 28. 



12 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Somehow or other in some quarters Lincoln has 
been regarded as the accident of genius, as a mere 
backwoods boor, ignorant and unschooled, but prov- 
identially endowed in some miraculous way, with un- 
common common sense, with almost divine wisdom, 
with a genius for logic and language that persuaded 
men against their will, and a godlike prescience. 

Nothing could be farther from the truth. 

The greatest gift with which nature endowed him, 
that was practically the parent of all others, was not 
a mere desire for knowledge, a thirst for truth, but a 
perfect passion for learning, for knowledge. 

It would be unsafe to judge most men upon their 
own estimates. The bill of lading would surprisingly 
exceed the quality and quantity of goods delivered. 
Not so with Lincoln. 

And as it is the purpose of this volume merely to 
interpret Lincoln from what he has said, from what 
he has done, I shall give here his own version of his 
"passion for knowledge." 

After his dehvery of the great Cooper Institute 
speech in New York, February 27, 1860, he made a 
short trip through New England, in which he aroused 
great pubhc interest, both as to the man and his 
message. 

A leading paper contained the following interview 
with him: 

''Well, as to education, the newspapers are correct. 
I never went to school more than six months in my 
life. I can say this: that among my earliest recollec- 
tions I remember how, when a mere child, I used to 
get irritated when anybody talked to me in a way that 
I could not understand. I can remember going to my 
little bedroom, after hearing the neighbors talk of an 



LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 13 

evening with my father, and spending no small part 
of the night trying to make out what was the exact 
meaning of some of their, to me, dark sayings. 

''I could not sleep, although I tried to, when I got 
on such a hunt for an idea until I had caught it; and 
when I thought I had got it I was not satisfied until 
I had repeated it over and over again, until I had put 
it in language plain enough, as I thought, for any boy 
I knew to comprehend. This was a kind of passion 
with me, and it has stuck by me; for I am never easy 
now, when I am handling a thought, until I have 
bounded it north and bounded it south and bounded 
it east and bounded it west." * 

No simpler, stronger statement could be made of 
his paramount passion for knowledge, his self-reliant 
methods of research and reason upon his own re- 
sources, f 

* Curtis, p. 59. 

I Doctor E. C. Moore, formerly professor of education in Harvard 
University, in his treatise on "What is Education," at page 24 says: 
"Education is determined by what the student does. A single subject 
which has been pursued in such a way that he has learned to stand on 
his own feet, and use his own mind in the getting and solving of its prob- 
lems provides a more real education than a whole college course in which 
one has merely endeavored to appropriate the thoughts of other men, or 
tried to become a thinker without thinking about anything which seemed 
to require thought." 



CHAPTER III 

LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 

(continued) 

Lincoln was his own schoolmaster in the rudiments 
of knowledge, in law, and in government. What a 
teacher ! What a pupil ! What results ! 

Tliis master man gave us his method, and his formula 
of self -education in the interview just quoted. Later 
in a succeeding chapter, in his advice to a law student, 
he tells us to "work, work, work." No matter what 
the educational method may be, in its last analysis 
it will be found, as Euclid said: "There is no royal 
road to learning." 

Let us examine Lincoln's own formula as to its ele- 
ments, and as to where and how he applied them. 

Now, where did Lincoln "hunt" for his ideas? 
What did he repeat over and over again and put in 
language "plain enough, as I thought, for any boy I 
knew to comprehend," and where did he get the 
thoughts which he says he "bounded north and 
bounded south and bounded east and bounded west," 
as appeared in the New York interview cited in the 
last chapter? 

He was as poor in number of books as he was rich 
in the nature of books. His library, chiefly borrowed, 
was composed of the Bible, Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress," "iEsop's Fables," DeFoe's "Robinson Crusoe," 
Weems's "Life of Washington," a "History of the 
United States " and the dictionary. 

14 



LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 15 

And yet what a library for a liberal and efficient 
education — at least the foundation of an education. 

What boy ever had a better set of text-books for 
learning and language, for conscience and character, 
than these ? 

These books he read and reread, studied and re- 
studied, until he knew them from cover to cover. He 
literally devoured them and assimilated them into his 
mind, as he assimilated food into his body. 

While working in the field at odd moments, or be- 
tween errands in the home, or between customers in 
the store, whenever he had a leisure moment, the Bible, 
or Bunyan, or the dictionary was always at his elbow. 

In addition to these books he was a constant and 
regular reader of the best newspapers of the day. 

Herndon* says: 

''He was a careful and patient reader of newspapers, 
the Sangamon Journal — published at Springfield — 
Louisville Journal, St. Louis Republican, and Cincin- 
nati Gazette being usually within his reach." 

Abe not only had the handicap of no schools in the 
neighborhood, no books in the home, but also the lack 
of interest, and even opposition, of the father to his 
employment in books rather than in the field. 

As appears in Lincoln's written statement to Fell in 
the preceding chapter: 

''He, the father, grew up literally without educa- 
tion. He never did more in the way of writing than 
bungUngly to write his own name." (His wife had 
taught him to do this.) 

This illiteracy upon the part of the father exhibited 
itself in a strong opposition to the boy's education. 
The father's general shiftlessness and business inef- 

* Vol. I, p. 104. 



16 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

ficiency made constant demands upon the big, hardy 
boy to work, not only in the father's fields when he 
ought to have been at school, but also to work at wage 
for the neighbors in order to furnish funds for the 
father's deficiencies. 

I am entirely aware that Doctor Holland takes the 
opposite view. 

He says : 

"Among the most untoward circumstances Thomas 
Lincoln embraced every opportunity to give Abraham 
an education." 

The overwhelming evidence is to the contrary, as 
shown in almost every other leading biography. 

Herndon* says: 

"Abe's love for books, and his determined effort 
to obtain an education in spite of so many obstacles, 
induced the behef in his father's mind, that book- 
learning was absorbing a greater proportion of his 
energy and industry than the demands of the farm. 
The old gentleman had but httle faith in the value 
of books or papers, and hence the frequent drafts he 
made on the son to aid in the drudgery of daily toil." 

Mrs. Thomas Lincoln, in a statement made under 
date of September 8, 1865, as noted by Herndon, says: 

"I induced my husband to permit Abe to read and 
study at home as well as at school. At first he was 
not easily reconciled to it, but finally he too seemed 
willing to encourage him to a certain extent." 

Indeed, this was the chief bone of unpleasantness 
between father and son, and they never afterward 
seemed to sustain that affectionate relation that Abra- 
ham's nature, deportment, and rapid rise to fame should 
have abundantly justified. 

* Vol. I, p. 33. 



LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 17 

Lincoln himself evidently refers to the strained re- 
lations between him and the father in a letter that he 
wrote to John Johnston, a stepbrother, in 1851, just 
prior to his father's death. 

In this letter he said, among other things: 

''. . . You already know I desire that neither father 
nor mother shall be in want of any comfort, either in 
health or sickness, while they live; and I feel sure 
you have not failed to use my name, if necessary, to 
procure a doctor or any thing else for father in his 
present sickness. My business is such that I could 
hardly leave home now, if it were not, as it is, that 
my own wife is sick-a-bed. ... I sincerely hope 
father may yet recover his health; but, at all events, 
tell him to remember to call upon and confide in our 
great and good and merciful Maker, who will not turn 
away from him in any extremity. He notes the fall 
of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads; and 
he will not forget the dying man who puts his trust 
in him. Say to him, that if we could meet now, it is 
doubtful whether it would not be more painful than 
pleasant; but that, if it be his lot to go now, he will 
soon have a joyous meeting with loved ones gone be- 
fore, and where the rest of us, through the help of God, 
hope ere long to join them. 

" Write me again when you receive this. 
" Affectionately, 

" A. Lincoln." 

When the boy was in his tenth year, his dear de- 
voted mother died. Within a year or two the father 
took unto himself another wife, a widow by the name 
of Sarah Bush Johnston, who then lived in Kentucky. 



18 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

She had been courted by Thomas Lincoln before he 
had married Nancy Hanks. 

The coming of Sarah Bush Johnston into the lUinois 
home made a great change. The home, through her 
effort and insistence, was greatly improved, as far as 
their means would allow. The boy was again given 
a mother's care, and as already noted, the new mother 
overcame much of the opposition of the father against 
the education of young Abraham. More than that, 
this stepmother read and studied with him, and con- 
trary to the usual rule, there was a sweeter, tenderer 
relation between them than there was between her 
and her own children. 

Herndon* gives us a very clear and detailed ac- 
count of the influence of the second Mrs. Lincoln upon 
their primitive home in Indiana. He says: 

''The new Mrs. Lincoln was accompanied by her 
three children, John, Sarah, and Matilda. Her social 
status is fixed by the comparison of a neighbor, who 
observed that 'hfe among the Hankses, the Lincolns, 
and the Enlows was a long ways below life among the 
Bushes.' 

''In the eyes of her spouse she could not be regarded 
as a poor widow. She was the owner of a goodly stock 
of furniture and household goods; bringing with her 
among other things a walnut bureau valued at fifty 
dollars. What effect the new family, their collection 
of furniture, cooking utensils, and comfortable bedding 
must have had on the astonished and motherless pair 
who from the door of Thomas Lincoln's forlorn cabin 
watched the well-filled wagon as it came creaking 
through the woods can better be imagined than de- 
scribed. Surely Sarah and Abe, as the stores of sup- 
pHes were rolled in through the doorless doorways, 

* Vol. I, p. 27. 



LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 19 

must have believed that a golden future awaited them. 
The presence and smile of a motherly face in the cheer- 
less cabin radiated sunshine into every neglected corner. 
If the Lincoln mansion did not in every respect corre- 
spond to the representations made by its owner to 
the new Mrs. Lincoln before marriage, the latter gave 
no expression of disappointment or even surprise. With 
true womanly courage and zeal she set resolutely to 
work to make right that which seemed wrong. Her 
husband was made to put a floor in the cabin, as well 
as to supply doors and windows. The cracks between 
the logs were plastered up. A clothes-press filled the 
space between the chimney jamb and the wall, and 
the mat of corn husks and leaves on which the children 
had slept in the corner gave way to the comfortable 
luxuriance of a feather bed. She washed the two or- 
phans, and fitted them out in clothes taken from the 
stores of her own. The work of renovation in and 
around the cabin continued until even Thomas Lin- 
coln himself, under the general stimulus of the new 
wife's presence, caught the inspiration, and developed 
signs of intense activity. The advent of Sarah Bush 
was certainly a red-letter day for the Lincolns. She 
was not only industrious and thrifty, but gentle and 
affectionate; and her newly adopted children for the 
first time, perhaps, realized the benign influence of 
a mother's love. Of young Abe she was especially 
fond, and we have her testimony that her kindness 
and care for him were warmly and bountifully re- 
turned." 

One of the last things done by Lincoln before he 
left Springfield for Washington in February, 1861, 
was to go out and call on his grand old stepmother, 
and the story of their meeting and parting is one of 
the sweetest, tenderest memories of his life. 



20 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

This insatiable thirst for knowledge, unquenched 
and unquenchable, as against poverty and parental 
opposition, is noted frequently by his many biog- 
raphers. 

Herndon* says: 

"The foundation for his education was laid in In- 
diana and in the little town of New Salem in Illinois, 
and in both places he gave evidence of a nature and 
characteristics that distinguished him from every as- 
sociate and surrounding he had. He was not peculiar 
or eccentric, and yet a shrewd observer would have 
seen that he was decidedly unique and original. Al- 
though imbued with a marked dislike for manual labor 
(Lincoln once said that his father taught him farm 
work but never taught him to love it), it cannot be 
truthfully said of him that he was indolent. From 
a mental standpoint he was one of the most energetic 
young men of his day. He dwelt altogether in the 
land of thought. His deep meditation and abstrac- 
tion easily induced the belief among his horny-handed 
companions that he was lazy. . . . His chief delight 
during the day, if unmolested, was to lie down under 
the shade of some inviting tree and read and study. 
At night, lying on his stomach in front of the open 
fireplace with a piece of charcoal he would cipher on 
a broad wooden shovel. . . . His stepmother told 
me he devoured everything in the book line within 
his reach. If in reading he came across anything that 
pleased his fancy, he entered it down in a copy-book 
— a sort of repository, in which he was wont to store 
everything worthy of preservation." 

Herndon further says in the same connection: 

"Whenever Abe had a chance in the field while at 

* Vol. I, pp. 36-39. 



LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 21 

work, or at the house, he would stop and read. He 
kept the Bible and '^Esop's Fables' always within 
reach, and read them over and over again." 

Even Colonel Lamon, in his biography, says: 

"Abe loved to he under a shade tree or up in the 
loft of the cabin and read, cipher, or scribble at night. 
He sat by the chimney jamb and ciphered by the light 
of the fire on the wooden fire shovel. Wlien the shovel 
was fairly covered he would shave it off with Tom 
Lincoln's drawing knife and begin again. At day time 
he used boards for the same purpose out of doors and 
went through the shaving process everlastingly. His 
stepmother repeats often that 'He read every book 
that he could lay his hands on.' She says 'Abe read 
diligently every book he could lay his hands on and 
when he came across a passage that struck him he 
would write it down on boards if he had no paper, keep 
it there until he did get some paper, then he would 
rewrite it, repeat it. He had a kind of copy book, a 
scrap book in which he put down the things and thus 
preserved it." 

Lamon further says: 

''Among the books upon which Abe laid his hands 
were iEsop's Fables, Robinson Crusoe, Bunyan's Pil- 
grim's Progress, a History of the United States and 
Weems's Life of Washington. All these he read many 
times, transferred extracts from them to the boards 
and the scrap book. He had procured the scrap book 
because most of his literature was borrowed and he 
thought it profitable to take copious notes from the 
books before he returned them. David Turnham 
had bought a volume of the Revised Statutes of 
Indiana. Lincoln borrowed this book and read it in- 
tensely." 



22 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Lamon notes a conversation he had with the wife 
of Allen Gentry, which was rather unusual. She 
said: 

''I am now thoroughly satisfied that Abe knew the 
general laws of astronomy and the movements of the 
heavenly bodies. He was better read then than the 
world knows, or is hkely to know exactly. No man 
could talk to me that night as he did, unless he had 
known something of geography as well as astronomy. 
He often and often conmiented or talked to me about 
what he read, — seemed to read it out of the book as 
he went along, — did so to others. He was the learned 
boy among us unlearned folks. He took great pains 
to explain; could do it so simply." * 

''Of all these years of Abraham Lincoln's early child- 
hood we know almost nothing. ... He never talked 
of these days to his most intimate friends. . . . When 
Abraham was seven years of age Thomas Lincoln 
moved with his family to Indiana and there established 
a temporary shelter merely made from poles, enclosed 
on three sides. For a year or two it was without doors, 
windows or floors. At night the boy Abraham climbed 
to his bed in the loft, by a ladder of wooden pins driven 
into the logs. ... A thirst for knowledge as a means 
of rising in the world was innate in him. ... All the 
little learning he ever acquired he seized as a tool to 
better his condition. He learned his letters that he 
might read books and see how men in the great world 
outside of his woods had borne themselves in the fight 
for which he longed. He learned to write, first, that 
he might have an accomplishment his playmates had 
not; then that he might help his elders by writing 
their letters, and enjoy the feeling of usefulness which 

* Nicolay and Hay, in vol. I, pp. 27, et seq. 



LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 23 

this gave him; and finally that he might copy what 
struck him in his reading and thus make it his own 
for future use. . . . His attendance upon school was 
all told less than a year. ... He read everything 
he could lay his hands upon, and he was certainly for- 
tunate in the few books of which he became the 
possessor. ... He read them over and over again 
until he knew them almost by heart. . . . He would 
sit in the twilight and read a dictionary as long as he 
could see. He used to go to David Turnham's, the 
town constable, and devour the 'Revised Statutes of 
Indiana,' as boys in our day do the 'Three Guards- 
men.' Of the books he did not own he took voluminous 
notes, filling his copy-book with choice extracts, and 
poring over them until they were fixed in his memory. 
He could not afford to waste paper upon his original 
compositions. He would sit by the fire at night and 
cover the wooden shovel with essays and arithmetical 
exercises, which he would shave off and then begin 
again. It is touching to think of this great-spirited 
child, battling year after year against his evil star, 
wasting his ingenuity upon devices and makeshifts, 
his high intelligence starving for want of the simple 
appliances of education that are now offered gratis 
to the poorest and most indifferent." 

Much more might be offered along the same line 
for the encouragement of the poor boy, the boy with- 
out opportunity, at least the opportunity of high school, 
academy, college, or university. 

The devotion to his books, the thoroughness of his 
study, the assimilation of their contents, was most 
unusual. He made everything that he read and studied 
a part of himself. As the food he ate was assimilated 
into muscle, so the books he read were assimilated 



24 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

into mind. His life gives added force to the old adage, 
''Beware of the man of few books." 

The Lincoln idea was to learn the fundamentals, 
the basic truths of life, intellectual, moral, political; 
not merely to know them, but to use them for his 
own betterment, for the public enhghtenment, to turn 
them to practical account, to some workable pur- 
pose. 

Doctor Holland strikingly shows us what this boy 
did with the things he learned and digested from the 
few but fertile books he had. 

''He became a writer also. The majority of the 
settlers around him were entirely illiterate, and when 
it became known that Mr. Lincoln's boy could write, 
his services were in frequent request by them in send- 
ing epistolary messages to their friends. In the com- 
position of these letters his early habits of putting the 
thoughts of others as well as his own into language 
were formed. The exercise was, indeed, as good as 
a school to him; for there is no better discipline, for 
any mind, than that of giving definite expression to 
thought in language. Much of his subsequent power 
as a writer and speaker was undoubtedly traceable 
to this early discipline." 

Doctor Holland further relates an instance of Abra- 
ham when only nine years of age writing a letter upon 
the death of his mother to good old Parson Elkins in 
Kentucky, from whom he got his first inspiration in 
public speaking, to come to their Indiana home and 
preach the funeral sermon in memory of his sainted 
mother. This the parson did some months after. 

The boy's writing material was very crude. Ink 
was made from pokeberries, pens from feathers, and 
paper, which was scarce, usually found a substitute 



LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 25 

in logs, bark, sand, shingles, and wooden shovels. Abra- 
ham would take a shingle and write on it with a piece 
of charcoal. After the shingle was filled he would 
shave it off and write on it again. So also he used the 
old shovel of the fireplace, writing upon its burnt wood, 
shaving and rewriting, until there was nothing left 
of the shovel. It is difficult in these times for j^oung 
America with all their privileges and opportunities 
to reahze the hardships encountered by this boy in 
his eager efforts to educate himself. 

In addition to his letter-writing as a means of im- 
proving his thought and his language, he wrote many 
compositions that attracted more than casual atten- 
tion from the people of the neighborhood. 

Colonel Lamon, in his biography, says: 

"Nat Grigsby, a boyhood friend of Lincoln, says: 
'Essays and poetry were not taught in this school 
(refering to Crawford's). Abe took it up on his own 
account. He first wrote short sentences against cruelty 
to animals and at last came forward with a composi- 
tion on the subject. He was very much annoyed and 
pained by the conduct of the boys who were in the 
habit of catching terrapins and putting coals of fire 
on their backs. He would write us,' Nat says, 'and 
tell us it was wrong and would write against it.'" 

The same author further says: 

''All sorts of frolics and all kinds of popular gather- 
ings, whether for work or amusement, possessed irre- 
sistible attractions for Abe. He loved to see and be 
seen, to make sport and to enjoy it. It was a most 
important part of his education that he got at the corn- 
shuckings, the log-rollings, the shooting-matches, and 
the gay and jolly weddings of those early border times. 
He was the only man or boy within a wide compass 



26 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

who had learning enough to furnish the Uterature for 
such occasions." 

"At Gentryville 'they had exhibitions or speaking 
meetings.' Some of the questions they spoke on were, 
The Bee and the Ant, Water and Fire; another was, 
Which had the most right to complain, the Negro or 
the Indian." 

''One WilHam Wood, a boyhood friend of Abe's, 
says that ' Abe was in the habit of carrying (his pieces) 
to him for criticism and encouragement. Mr. Wood 
took at least two newspapers, one of them devoted to 
politics and one of them to temperance. Abe bor- 
rowed them both and read them faithfully over and 
over again, was inspired with an ardent desire to write 
something on the subjects of which they treated. He 
accordingly composed an article on Temperance, which 
Mr. Wood thought excelled for sound sense anything 
that the paper contained. Abe then tried his hand 
on national politics, saying that the American govern- 
ment was the best form of government for an intelligent 
people; that it ought to be kept sound and preserved 
forever; that general education should be fostered 
and carried all over the country; that the constitu- 
tion should be saved, the Union perpetuated and the 
laws revered, respected and enforced. This article 
was turned over to Mr. Wood. Judge Pritchard after- 
wards passed that way, read the article, and said ' The 
world can't beat it.' It was afterwards published in 
some local paper." 

This was written when the boy was but seventeen 
years of age. 

On Monday mornings he would mount a stump and 
deUver in substance the sermon that he had heard the 
day before. His taste for public speaking seemed not 



LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 27 

only natural but was most pronounced at a very early 
age. His stepsister Matilda Johnston says: 

''He was an indefatigable preacher. When Father 
and Mother would go to church Abe would take down 
the Bible, read a verse, give out a hymn and we would 
sing. Abe was then about fifteen years of age. He 
preached and we would do the crying. Sometimes he 
would join in the chorus of tears. One day my brother, 
John Johnston, threw a land terrapin against a tree 
and crushed the shell. It suffered much. Abe then 
preached against cruelty to animals contending that 
an ant's life was as sweet to it as ours to us." 

After reaching New Salem, when twenty-two years 
of age, one of the first things he did was to join the 
"New Salem Literary Society." The president, Mr. 
R. B. Rutledge spoke of Lincoln's debates as follows: 

"He pursued the questions with reason and argu- 
ment so pithy and forcible that all were amazed." 

While here he frequently walked to Booneville 
court-house to observe and study the trial of cases. 

It was at New Salem within a week from his arrival 
that he met the village schoolmaster. Mentor Graham, 
who exercised a most wholesome and intellectual in- 
fluence on the young man, not only giving him books 
to study, but aiding him in their study, and strongly 
advising him to study grammar. Lincoln walked six 
miles to borrow a copy of Kirkham's grammar and 
with Graham's help he succeeded in mastering it in 
six weeks. His comment was that if that was science 
he thought he could "subdue" another. 

Herndon, at page 112, quotes the schoolmaster 
Graham as saying: 

"He (Lincoln) studied to see the subject-matter 
clearly, and to express it truly and strongly. I have 



28 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

known him to study for hours the best way of three 
to express an idea." 

The fact of the matter is he was one of the busiest 
boys in all the neighborhood, with his quills, pokeberry 
juice, scraps of paper, charcoal and shingles, scrap- 
books, compositions, debate, talking from stumps to 
the trees as an audience, reading and repeating over 
and over again until he had memorized the contents, 
of books, sermons, and speeches, and could reproduce 
them verbatim. 

Mental power does not come from mere knowledge, 
but rather in the ability to practically use that knowl- 
edge. As child and youth he was constantly engaged 
not only in acquiring knowledge, but in arranging the 
same and putting it in appropriate phrase and formula 
for future use. 

Our public schools and colleges seem to neglect this 
important and useful branch of practical education 
and mental discipline. I fear the essentials of the old 
literary society have come and gone until pubUc opinion 
shall call them back. 

It was one of the biggest factors in the intellectual 
product of this man. He was organizing and attend- 
ing literary societies, participating in what he called 
''practising polemics" in and about Gentry ville, in 
and about New Salem, and even after he got to Spring- 
field as a member of the State Legislature, he, with 
others, organized a Lyceum, in the autumn of 1836, 
and delivered before that organization in January, 
1837, a remarkable speech on "The Perpetuation of 
our Political Institutions." This speech will be dis- 
cussed in a later chapter. 

Lincoln was not a man of ordinary desires, ordinary 
tastes, ordinary likes and dislikes. He was, for the 



LINCOLN'S PASSION FOR KNOWLEDGE 29 

most part, extraordinary in these respects. He had 
passions for things, and no passion of his Hfe was 
stronger than his passion for knowledge — save one. 
What was that one ? His passion for justice. 

These two passions were ever present and prevail- 
ing throughout his personal and public life. 



CHAPTER IV 
HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 

"And behold there was a man named Joseph, a counsellor; and he 
was a good man and a just." — St. Luke 23 : 50. 

Justice, as here used is the broad generic word and 
its associated attributes, such as gentleness, helpful- 
ness, gratitude, truthfulness, honesty, and the like — 
to every man his due. 

It embraces those qualities of character, which the 
world admires when it pays tribute to a just man. 

As we have already seen, Lincoln while unschooled, 
as a boy, was everything but uneducated. Where in 
all Indiana could he have found a schoolmaster as 
great as himself ? Where could he have found a school 
that could have given the time to study, to repetition 
in repeating over and over again his reading and writ- 
ing, where could he have found a school with such 
text-books as the Bible, Bunyan's ''Pilgrim's Prog- 
ress," "iEsop's Fables," DeFoe's "Robinson Crusoe," 
and the like ? 

Just as he was without the opportunity of regular 
attendance upon the day-school, so he was also with- 
out the opportunity of attendance upon Sunday-school 
and upon church and Bible class. And yet there was 
no book to which he devoted so much time, study, 
analysis and appUcation of its great truths as he did 
to the Bible. 

As Herndon has well said: ''This book was nearly 
always at his elbow." 

Its parables and proverbs furnished a plan and spec- 

30 



HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 31 

ifications for many a Lincoln address. Indeed, in the 
vast majority of Lincoln's public speeches, in early as 
well as later life, we find cropping out, yes, we find 
as the corner-stone of his simple, strong arguments, 
the Holy Bible or the Declaration of Independence, or 
both. 

It is an old saying that ''Coming events cast their 
shadows before." 

The early experiences and expressions of boyhood 
ofttimes forecast the coming man. 

Let us note a few of the symptomatic incidents of 
Lincoln's boyhood, as showing the presence of this 
pronounced passion for justice. 

Nicolay and Hay* relate this interesting incident of 
the boy's life in Kentucky. He was then only a child 
not exceeding seven years of age. When asked for any 
recollection he had of the War of 1812-1815, Mr. 
Lincoln once said: 

"Nothing but this. I had been fishing one day and 
caught a little fish which I was taking home. I met a 
soldier in the road, and having been always told at 
home that we must be good to the soldiers, I gave him 
my fish." 

These same authors observe: 

"This is only a faint glimpse but what it shows is 
rather pleasant — the generous child and the patriotic 
household." 

I have already noted his talks to the boys and girls 
against cruelty to animals, especially a common prac- 
tice in that neighborhood of putting coals of fire on 
the backs of turtles. 

Later he prepared a composition on this subject 
that received neighborhood prominence. 

*Vol. I, p. 27. 



32 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Herndon relates several interesting incidents touch- 
ing his passion for justice. 

One day his stepsister, Matilda Johnston, a mere 
girl, followed Abe into the woods. Running hurriedly 
after him, she crept up, catlike, behind him and jumped 
on his back; planting her knee in the middle of his 
back, she threw him over backward, the axe that he 
was carrying so falling as to cut the girl's ankle as she 
fell, and there was a general flow of blood. Abe tore 
off a part of his shirt for a bandage and stopped the 
blood. Thereafter the boy, Abe, said to Tilda: 

"What are you going to tell mother about getting 
hurt?" 

"Tell her I did it with the ax," she sobbed. "That 
will be the truth, won't it?" 

To which last inquiry Abe manfully responded : 

"Yes, that is the truth, but it is not all the truth. 
Tell the whole truth, Tilda, and trust to your good 
mother for the rest." 

Another incident related by Herndon shows the 
inner nature of this boy.* 

It was during the moving from Indiana to Illinois, 
while crossing a frozen stream which had to be forded 
by the yoke of oxen hauhng the effects of the Lincoln 
family. Herndon says: 

"Among other things which the party brought with 
them was a pet dog, which trotted along after the 
wagon. One day the little fellow fell behind and 
failed to catch up till after they had crossed the stream. 
Missing him they looked back, and there, on the oppo- 
site bank, he stood, whining and jumping about in 
great distress. The water was running over the 
broken edges of the ice, and the poor animal was 

* Herndon, vol. I, p. 59. 



HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 33 

afraid to cross. It would not pay to turn the oxen 
and wagon back and ford the stream again in order to 
recover a dog, and so the majority, in their anxiety 
to move forward, decided to go on without him. 
'But I could not endure the idea of abandoning even 
a dog,' related Lincoln. 'Pulling off shoes and socks 
I waded across the stream and triumphantly returned 
with the shivering animal under my arm. His frantic 
leaps of joy and other evidences of a dog's gratitude 
amply repaid me for all the exposure I had under- 
gone.'" 

Holland records several incidents of a like nature: 

"One evening, while returning from a 'raising' in his 
wide neighborhood, with a number of companions, he 
discovered a straying horse, with saddle and bridle 
upon him. The horse was recognized as belonging to 
a man who was accustomed to excess in drink, and it 
was suspected at once that the owner was not far off. 
A short search only was necessary to confirm the sus- 
picions of the young men. The poor drunkard was 
found in a perfectly helpless condition, upon the chilly 
ground. Abraham's companions urged the cowardly 
policy of leaving him to his fate, but young Lincoln 
would not hear to the proposition. At his request, the 
miserable sot was lifted to his shoulders, and he actu- 
ally carried him eighty rods to the nearest house. 
Sending word to his father that he should not be back 
that night, with the reason for his absence, he attended 
and nursed the man until the morning, and had the 
pleasure of believing that he had saved his hfe." 

Again he says : 

"He (Lincoln) was riding by a deep slough, in which, 
to his exceeding pain, he saw a pig struggling, and with 
such faint efforts that it was evident that he could 



34 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

not extricate himself from the mud. Mr. Lincoln 
looked at the pig and the mud which enveloped him, 
and then looked at some new clothes with which he 
had but a short time before enveloped himself. De- 
ciding against the claims of the pig, he rode on, but 
he could not get rid of the vision of the poor brute, 
and, at last, after riding two miles, he turned back, 
determined to rescue the animal at the expense of his 
new clothes. Arrived at the spot, he tied his horse, 
and coolly went to work to build of old rails a passage 
to the bottom of the hole. Descending on these rails, 
he seized the pig and dragged him out, but not with- 
out serious damage to the clothes he wore. Washing 
his hands in the nearest brook, and wiping them on 
the grass, he mounted his gig and rode along. He 
then fell to examining the motive that sent him back 
to the release of the pig. At the first thought it 
seemed to be pure benevolence, but, at length, he 
came to the conclusion that it was selfishness, for he 
certainly went to the pig's relief in order (as he said to 
the friend to whom he related the incident) to 'take 
a pain out of his own mind.' This is certainly a new 
view of the nature of sympathy, and one which it will 
be well for the casuist to examine." 

Many more incidents of a similar nature, showing a 
variety of his kind, helpful, and generous instincts 
toward man and brute, might be related in these pages 
and not without profit. But this is sufficient to show 
the kind of boy we are dealing with, who was to become 
the kind of man we find later at Springfield, as lawj^er, 
and at Washington, as President. 

No boy was such a welcome guest in every neighbor- 
hood in which he lived as the boy Abe. He was always 
doing chores for the good women of the community, 



HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 35 

helping with the work about the house, taking care of 
their children, and making himself generally useful. 
But on such occasions he was never without a book 
to engage his spare moments. And even when rocking 
the primitive cradles of those days to help the busy 
mother, Lincoln could be found with a foot on the 
rocker and a book in his hand. 

Notwithstanding the keen and noble sense of obli- 
gation to his father, because he was his father, the 
last year or two in Indiana found the boy exceed- 
ingly restive and dissatisfied. He talked the matter 
over with his neighbors about leaving home and 
beginning life for himself. They advised him to stay 
until he had reached his majority, and then he would 
feel perfectly free to emancipate himself. This he 
did. 

Indeed, after the family moved to Macon, Illinois, he 
remained with them a year in helping with the new 
cabin, building fences, ploughing the new land, put- 
ting in and cultivating and harvesting the crops. 

He remained in that section doing odd jobs at farm 
work until August, 1831, when he went to New Salem, 
which opened up a new era for the ambitious youth, 
now twenty-two years of age. 

At this time he was a giant in size and strength, six 
feet four, weight one hundred and eighty pounds; and 
numerous biographers relate the fact to be that he 
could lift six hundred pounds. 

His remarkable physical strength gave him great 
prominence in the various communities in which he 
lived, and no place more than at New Salem. 

One witness declares he was equal to three men, 
having on a certain occasion carried a load of six hun- 
dred pounds. At another time he walked away with 



36 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

a pair of logs which three robust men were sceptical 
of their ability to carry. 

"He could strike with a maul a heavier blow, could 
sink an axe deeper into wood than any man I ever 
saw," says another witness. 

Having a giant's strength, he, however, refused to 
use it as the average giant does. He was no "bully." 

Lincoln's early hfe in New Salem is full of interesting 
events. But I shall record only those significant ones 
that show the inner man. 

He was employed by Denton Offut, one of the 
village merchants, as a clerk in a general store. This 
gave him additional acquaintance with the people in 
a large neighborhood, and also furnished him ample 
leisure, day and night, for pursuing his studies. He 
still continued to read and study everything he could 
get his hands on that seemed worth while. 

While here, he met the notorious Jack Armstrong, 
the leader of the Clary's Grove boys. The Armstrong 
contest is worthy of mention in some detail. 

Offut had wagered with Bill Clary, one of the gang, 
that Lincoln was a "better man" than Jack Arm- 
strong. 

Herndon describes the contest as follows: 

"The new clerk strongly opposed this sort of an in- 
troduction, but after much entreaty from Offut, at 
last consented to make his bow to the social lions of 
the town in this unusual way. He was now six feet 
four inches high, and weighed, as his friend and con- 
fidant, William Greene tells us with impressive pre- 
cision, 'two hundred and fourteen pounds.' The con- 
test was to be a friendly one and fairly conducted. All 
New Salem adjourned to the scene of the wrestle. 
Money, whiskey, knives, and all manner of property 



HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 37 

were staked on the result. It is unnecessary to go into 
details of the encounter. Every one knows how it 
ended; how at last the tall angular rail-splitter, en- 
raged at the suspicion of foul tactics, and profiting 
by his height and the length of his arms, fairly lifted 
the great bully by the throat and shook him like a 
rag; how by this act he established himself solidly in 
the esteem of all New Salem, and secured the respect- 
ful admiration and friendship of the very man whom 
he had so thoroughly vanquished. From this time 
forward Jack Armstrong, his wife Hannah, and all 
the other Armstrongs became his warm and trusted 
friends." * 

On another occasion, while acting as clerk in the 
Offut store, Lincoln was waiting upon several ladies 
who were making some purchases of cahco. The bully 
at once began to talk in an offensive and profane manner 
in the presence of the ladies. Lincoln leaned over the 
counter and begged him to stop. The incident as re- 
lated by Holland is as follows: 

''The bully retorted that the opportunity had come 
for which he had long sought, and he would like to 
see the man who could hinder him from saying any- 
thing he might choose to say. Lincoln, still cool, told 
him that if he would wait until the ladies retired, he 
would hear what he had to say, and give him any satis- 
faction he desired. As soon as the women were gone, 
the man became furious. Lincoln heard his boasts 
and his abuse for a time, and finding that he was not 
to be put off without a fight, said — 'Well, if you must 
be whipped, I suppose I may as well whip you as any 
other man.' This was just what the bully had been 
seeking, he said, so out of doors they went, and Lin- 

* Herndon, vol. I, p. 74. 



38 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

coin made short work with him. He threw him upon 
the ground, held him there as if he had been a child, 
and gathering some 'smart-weed' which grew upon 
the spot, rubbed it into his face and eyes, until the 
fellow bellowed with pain. Lincoln did all this with- 
out a particle of anger, and when the job was finished, 
went immediately for water, washed his victim's face, 
and did everything he could to alleviate his distress. 
Thereafter the two men became great friends." 

Much as Lincoln regretted experiences of this char- 
acter, he was fully persuaded that the eminent justice 
of the situation called for a vigorous discipline of the 
offender. It was a case of being cruel only to be kind. 

This passion for justice made him likewise an honest 
boy and an honest man, and he became known while 
a clerk in the store at New Salem, and for many years 
thereafter as ''Honest Abe." 

Holland has preserved two incidents illustrative of 
this trait of his character: 

"On one occasion he sold a woman a little bill of 
goods amounting in value, by the reckoning, to two 
dollars and six and a quarter cents. He received the 
money, and the woman went away. On adding the 
items of the bill again, to make himself sure of cor- 
rectness, he found that he had taken six and a quarter 
cents too much. It was night, and closing and lock- 
ing the store, he started out on foot, a distance of two 
or three miles, for the house of his defrauded customer, 
and dehvering over to her the sum whose possession 
had so much troubled him, went home satisfied. On 
another occasion, just as he was closing the store for 
the night, a woman entered, and asked for half a pound 
of tea. The tea was weighed out and paid for, and 
the store was left for the night. The next morning. 



HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 39 

Abraham entered to begin the duties of the day, when 
he discovered a four-ounce weight on the scales. He 
saw at once that he had made a mistake, and, shutting 
the store, he took a long walk before breakfast to de- 
liver the remainder of the tea." 

These circumstances are small in and of themselves, 
but they are simply the outcropping of a great, 
big, just, honest, conscientious nature, and were as 
much a part of Abraham Lincoln as his arms and his 
legs. 

A similar incident occurred after he began the prac- 
tice of law at Springfield. Uncle Sam had never asked 
any accounting of Lincoln during his term as post- 
master at New Salem, which began in 1833. 

Some years afterward, when Lincoln was practising 
law at Springfield, a post-office inspector from the 
Federal Government appeared and advised Lincoln 
that he was indebted to Uncle Sam in the amount of 
seventeen dollars and some odd cents. Mr. Lincoln 
thought a moment, went to an old trunk, unknotted 
an old rag that he had tied up years before, and therein 
produced the exact number of dollars and cents which 
he had correctly reckoned, tied up in this old rag, and 
put away in his old trunk, so that, when Uncle Sam was 
ready for the accounting, he, Lincoln, was ready to 
pay to the very last penny. 

As he gave the money to the inspector he said: 

"I never use any man's money but my own." 

Nicolay and Hay, vol. I, page 120, speak of this pas- 
sion for justice that was generally recognized by every- 
body that knew him as an essential part of the boy 
Lincoln : 

"He was continually called on to serve in the most 
incongruous capacities. Old residents say he was the 



40 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

best judge at a horse-race the county afforded; he was 
occasionally a second in a duel of fisticuffs, though he 
usually contrived to reconcile the adversaries on the 
turf before any damage was done; he was the arbiter 
on all controverted points of literature, science, or 
woodcraft among the disputatious denizens of Clary's 
Grove, and his decisions were never appealed from. 
His native tact and humor were invaluable in his 
work as a peacemaker, and his enormous physical 
strength, which he always used with a magnanimity 
rare among giants, placed his offhand decrees beyond 
the reach of contemptuous question. He composed 
differences among friends and equals with good-natured 
raillery, but he was as rough as need be when his 
wrath was roused by meanness and cruelty." 

Holland also speaks of this general confidence that 
the public universally had in his sense of fairness and 
justice: 

''Every one trusted him. It was while he was per- 
forming the duties of the store that he acquired the 
sobriquet 'Honest Abe' — a characterization that he 
never dishonored, and an abbreviation that he never 
outgrew. He w^as judge, arbitrator, referee, umpire, 
authority, in all disputes, games, and matches of man- 
flesh, and horse-flesh; a pacificator in all quarrels; 
everybody's friend; the best natured, the most sensi- 
ble, the best informed, the most modest and unassum- 
ing, the kindest, gentlest, roughest, strongest, best 
young fellow in all New Salem and the region round 
about." 

Many more of the symptomatic facts of his child- 
hood and youth might be here recorded to forecast the 
foundation of the character of this just boy and man. 

Later, throughout his keen, competitive life as a 



HIS PASSION FOR JUSTICE 41 

lawyer and political leader, he clung fast to the ideals 
of justice of his boyhood. Every controversy, per- 
sonal, professional, or political, had first to be tried 
out in God's court. 

What do I mean? 

The first court of justice was established by God 
Almighty. Wherever he established a man he estab- 
lished a court, because he put the court in the man. 
The most instantaneous, automatic, infallible, human 
function known is that of conscience. From the primi- 
tive man to the most civilized, conscience has so cor- 
rected and chastised our conduct that if the prompt- 
ings of the still small voice are followed, human nature 
does not go far wrong. 

In this court there are no technical rules of sub- 
stantive law, of pleading, of evidence. Everything is 
reduced to the simple formula: ''Whatsoever ye would 
that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them." 

And in the essentials of life it is amazing how our 
intelligence accepts the judgment of conscience as wise 
and just, without even the suggestion of an appeal. 

As there are no technical rules in this court, so there 
are no dela3''s. The truth being presented, the just- 
ness or unjustness of any contemplated action is at 
once determined. 

Every controversy of Lincoln, as layman, lawyer, or 
leader, had first to receive the sanction of this court. 
If it failed to secure the judgment of the court of con- 
science, no matter what financial sacrifices were in- 
volved, no matter what friendships were at stake, no 
matter what political issues might be affected, Lincoln 
refused to have anything further to do with such contro- 
versy. Conscience having rejected it, Lincoln rejected 
it, and so far as he was concerned it was at an end. 



CHAPTER V 
LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 

The day the Lincolns moved from Indiana into 
Macon County, Illinois, was an eventful one for young 
Abraham. He was then twenty-one years of age. 

For some years he had longed for the day of his 
majority, when he might be free to follow his own 
bent, to begin his own life in his own way, free from 
paternal interference. 

A year and more he spent in and about that neigh- 
borhood in farm work, still, however, employing all 
leisure time in pursuing his studies. He also, during 
this time, devoted some months to boating upon the 
Sangamon and the Ohio Rivers. 

Finally he landed at New Salem, in Sangamon 
County, as he himself says, as ''a piece of driftwood." 

A new day, however, had now dawned for Abraham 
Lincoln, and within ten days from the time he arrived 
at this little town of some twenty homes and one hun- 
dred inhabitants he received his first public job. An 
interesting account of this incident is given in Tarbell's 
Biography : * 

''The village schoolmaster. Mentor Graham by 
name, was clerk at this particular election, but his 
assistant was ill. Looking about for some one to help 
him, Mr. Graham saw a tall stranger loitering around 
the polling place and called to him : ' Can you write ? ' 
'Yes,' said the stranger, 'I can make a few rabbit 

* Vol. I, page 61. 
42 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 43 

tracks.' Mr. Graham was evidently satisfied with the 
answer, as he promptly initiated him." 

This was his first public position. 

At the close of the day he was no longer a stranger 
in New Salem. His pleasing manner, entertaining 
stories, and efficient service became the talk of the 
neighborhood and won for him the lasting friendship 
of the village schoolmaster, who henceforth played no 
unimportant part in the intellectual development of 
young Lincoln. 

While clerking in Offut's store Lincoln conceived the 
idea of becoming a candidate for the general assembly 
of Ilhnois, and accordingly in March, 1832, he issued 
to the people of Sangamon County his first political 
circular. 

Inasmuch as this is really the beginning of the poli- 
tician and the statesman, that circular becomes a mat- 
ter of prime and unusual interest to one following the 
evolution of Abraham Lincoln. 

As an index to the mind, character, and ambition 
of this twenty-three-year-old unschooled youth, this 
circular furnished instructive and undoubted evi- 
dence. 

It contained about two thousand words, setting 
forth his views on the important issues of the day. 

I am entirely aware that Mr. Herndon calls it a 
mere "hterary fulmination," and otherwise speaks 
slightingly of it. 

On the other hand, Nicolay and Hay, in their great 
work, say: 

"This is almost precisely the style of his later years. 
The errors of grarhmar and construction which spring 
invariably from an effort to avoid redundancy of ex- 
pression remained with him through life. He seemed 



44 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

to grudge the space required for necessary parts of 
speech. But his language was at twenty-three, as 
it was thirty years later, the simple and manly attire 
of his thought, with little attempt at ornament and 
none at disguise." 

The circular is as follows: 

''To THE People of Sangamon County. 

"Fellow-Citizens, — Having become a candidate for 
the honorable office of one of your Representatives in 
the next General Assembly of this State, in accordance 
with an established custom and the principles of true 
republicanism, it becomes my duty to make known 
to you, the people, whom I propose to represent, my 
sentiments with regard to local affairs. 

''Time and experience have verified to a demonstra- 
tion the public utihty of internal improvements. That 
the poorest and most thinly-populated counties would 
be greatly benefited by the opening of good roads, and 
in the clearing of navigable streams within their limits, 
is what no person will deny. Yet it is folly to under- 
take works of this or any other kind, without first 
knowing that we are able to finish them, — as half- 
finished work generally proves to be labor lost. There 
cannot justly be any objection to having railroads 
and canals, any more than to other good things, pro- 
vided they cost nothing. The only objection is to pay- 
ing for them; and the objection arises from the want 
of ability to pay. 

"With respect to the County of Sangamon, some 
more easy means of communication than it now pos- 
sesses, for the purpose of facilitating the task of ex- 
porting the surplus products of its fertile soil, and 
importing necessary articles from abroad, are indis- 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 45 

pensably necessary. A meeting has been held of the 
citizens of Jacksonville and the adjacent country, for 
the purpose of deliberating and inquiring into the ex- 
pediency of constructing a railroad from some eligible 
point on the Illinois River, through the town of Jack- 
sonville, in Morgan County, to the town of Spring- 
field, in Sangamon County. This is, indeed, a very 
desirable object. No other improvement that reason 
will justify us in hoping for can equal in utility the 
railroad. It is a never-faihng source of communica- 
tion between places of business remotely situated from 
each other. Upon the railroad the regular progress of 
commercial intercourse is not interrupted by either 
high or low water, or freezing weather, which are the 
principal difficulties that render our future hopes of 
water communication precarious and uncertain. 

"Yet however desirable an object the construction 
of a railroad through our country may be; however 
high our imaginations may be heated at thoughts of 
it, — there is always a heart-appalling shock accom- 
panying the account of its cost, which forces us to 
shrink from our pleasing anticipations. The principal 
cost of this contemplated railroad is estimated at 
$290,000; the bare statement of which, in my opinion, 
is sufficient to justify the belief that the improvement 
of the Sangamon River is an object much better suited 
to our infant resources. 

''Respecting this view, I think I may say, without 
the fear of being contradicted, that its navigation 
may be rendered completely practicable as high as the 
mouth of the South Fork, or probably higher, to vessels 
of from twenty-five to thirty tons burden, for at least 
one-half of all comjnon years, and to vessels of much 
greater burden a part of the time. From my pecuhar 



46 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

circumstances, it is probable that for the last twelve 
months I have given as particular attention to the 
stage of the water in this river as any other person in 
the country. In the month of March, 1831, in com- 
pany with others, I commenced the building of a flat- 
boat on the Sangamon, and finished and took her out 
in the course of the spring. Since that time I have 
been concerned in the mill at New Salem. These cir- 
cumstances are sufficient evidence that I have not been 
very inattentive to the stages of the water. The time 
at which we crossed the mill-dam being in the last 
days of April, the water was lower than it had been 
since the breaking of winter in February, or than it 
was for several weeks after. The principal difficulties 
we encountered in descending the river were from the 
drifted timber, which obstructions all know are not 
difficult to be removed. Knowing almost precisely 
the height of water at this time, I believe I am safe 
in saying that it has as often been higher as lower 
since. 

''From this view of the subject it appears that my 
calculations with regard to the navigation of the San- 
gamon cannot but be founded in reason; but, what- 
ever may be its natural advantage, certain it is that 
it never can be practically useful to any great extent 
without being greatly improved by art. The drifted 
timber, as I have before mentioned, is the most formi- 
dable barrier to this object. Of all parts of this river, 
none will require so much labor in proportion to make 
it navigable as the last thirty or thirty-five miles; and 
going with the meanderings of the channel, when we 
are this distance above its mouth we ar^ only between 
twelve and eighteen miles above Beardstown in some- 
thing near a straight direction; and this route is upon 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 47 

such low ground as to retain water in many places 
during the season, and in all parts such as to draw two- 
thirds or three-fourths of the river water at all high 
stages. 

''This route is on prairie land the whole distance, 
so that it appears to me, by removing the turf a suf- 
ficient width, and damming up the old channel, the 
whole river in a short time would wash its way through, 
thereby curtaihng the distance and increasing the 
velocity of the current very considerably, while there 
would be no timber on the banks to obstruct its navi- 
gation in future; and being nearly straight, the timber 
which might float in at the head would be apt to go 
clear through. There are also many places above this 
where the river, in its zigzag course forms such com- 
plete peninsulas as to be easier to cut at the necks than 
to remove the obstructions from the bends, which, 
if done, would also lessen the distance. 

''What the cost of this work would be, I am unable 
to say. It is probable, however, that it would not be 
greater than is common to streams of the same length. 
Finally, I believe the improvement of the Sangamon 
River to be vastly important and highly desirable to 
the people of the county; and, if elected, any measure 
in the legislature having this for its object, which may 
appear judicious, will meet my approbation and re- 
ceive my support. 

"It appears that the practice of drawing money at 
exorbitant rates of interest has already been opened 
as a field for discussion; so I suppose I may enter 
upon it without claiming the honor, or risking the 
danger, which may await its first explorer. It seems 
as though we are never to have an end to this baneful 
and corroding system, acting almost as prejudicial 



48 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

to the general interests of the community as a direct 
tax of several thousand dollars annually laid on each 
county, for the benefit of a few individuals only, unless 
there be a law made fixing the limits of usury. A law 
for this purpose, I am of opinion, may be made, with- 
out materially injuring any class of people. In cases 
of extreme necessity, there could always be means 
found to cheat the law; while in all other cases it would 
have its intended effect. I would favor the passage 
of a law on this subject which might not be very easily 
evaded. Let it be such that the labor and difficulty 
of evading it could only be justified in cases of greatest 
necessity. 

"Upon the subject of education, not presuming to 
dictate any plan or system respecting it, I can only 
say that I view it as the most important subject which 
we as a people can be engaged in. That every man 
may receive at least a moderate education, and there- 
by be enabled to read the histories of his own and 
other countries, by which he may duly appreciate the 
value of our free institutions, appears to be an object 
of vital importance, even on this account alone, to 
say nothing of the advantages and satisfaction to be 
derived from all being able to read the Scriptures, and 
other works both of a religious and moral nature, for 
themselves. 

''For my part, I desire to see the time when educa- 
tion — and by its means, morality, sobriety, enterprise, 
and industry — shall become much more general than 
at present, and should be gratified to have it in my 
power to contribute something to the advancement 
of any measure which might have a tendency to ac- 
celerate that happy period. 

''With regard to existing laws, some alterations are 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 49 

thought to be necessary. Many respectable men have 
suggested that our estray laws — the law respecting 
the issuing of executions, the road law, and some others 
— are deficient in their present form, and require al- 
terations. But, considering the great probability that 
the framers of those laws were w4ser than myself, I 
should prefer not meddhng with them, unless they 
were first attacked by others; in which case I should 
feel it both a privilege and a duty to take that stand, 
which, in my view, might tend most to the advance- 
ment of justice. 

"But fellow-citizens, I shall conclude. Considering 
the great degree of modesty which should always at- 
tend youth, it is probable I have already been more 
presuming than becomes me. However, upon the 
subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I 
have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or 
all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is 
better only sometimes to be right than at all times 
to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be 
erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them. 

"Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition. 
Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I 
have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed 
of my fellow-men, by rendering myseK worthy of their 
esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this 
ambition is yet to be developed. I am young, and 
unknown to many of you. I was born, and have ever 
remained, in the most humble walks of hfe. I have 
no wealthy or popular relations or friends to recom- 
mend me. My case is thrown exclusively upon the 
independent voters of the county; and, if elected, they 
will have conferred a favor upon me for which I shall 
be unremitting in my labors to compensate. But, if 



50 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

the good people in their wisdom shall see fit to keep 
me in the background, I have been too familiar with 
disappointments to be very much chagrined." 

How few could excel or equal this at twenty-three 
years of age. 

He had now been in Illinois but two years, Sanga- 
mon County and New Salem less than one year, but 
this circular shows a familiarity with the local issues 
of the day, a simplicity of statement, a clearness of 
demonstration, and a modest announcement of his 
ambition that might well add credit to any man older 
by a score. 

I want to call attention to one thing in particular, 
and that is the orderly arrangement of this circular, 
as showing his learning, his logic, and his language. 

1. His declaration of principles. 

2. His demonstration of their soundness. 

3. His dedication to them if elected. 

I desire to emphasize this feature of this boyhood 
address, because like the young apple-tree bearing its 
first crop, it may not be perfect, indeed it seldom is, 
but it surely forecasts the kind of apple that tree will 
bear in the coming years. 

This threefold manner, to wit, declaration, demon- 
stration, and dedication, are the constitutional charac- 
teristics of the Lincoln mind and character that we see 
all through the coming years. This address merits 
fm-ther analysis. It falls into the following divisions: 

1. His ''duty to make known to you, the people, 
whom I propose to represent, my sentiments with re- 
gard to local affairs." 

2. His declaration in favor of internal improvements, 
particularly the navigability of the Sangamon River. 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 51 

3. His declaration against the loan shark of the day. 

4. His declaration in favor of popular education. 

5. His declaration in favor of reserving the right to 
change or amend the existing laws as ''might tend 
most to the advancement of justice." 

6. He notes his own humility: ''I may be wrong in 
regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound 
maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right 
than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my 
opinions to be erroneous I shall be ready to renounce 
them." 

7. His pecuUar ambition, and to this I urge particu- 
lar attention: ''I have no other (ambition) so great as 
that of being truly esteemed of my fellow-men, by 
rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I 
shall succeed in gratifying this ambition is yet to be 
developed. I am young and unknown to many of 
you. I was born, and have ever remained, in the most 
humble walks of life. I have no wealthy or popular 
relations or friends to recommend me." 

8. *'My case is thrown exclusively upon the inde- 
pendent voters of the county." The independent 
voters seem to have been of importance even in 1832. 

9. His submission of the question: ''If elected they 
(the people) will have conferred a favor upon me for 
which I shall be unremitting in my labors to compen- 
sate. But, if the good people in their wisdom shall 
see fit to keep me in the background, I have been too 
familiar with disappointments to be very much cha- 
grined." 

In this circular are the seeds of the student, oppor- 
tunity and obligations of the orator, a subject-matter 
for the statesman, and the methods and manner of the 
popular leader and legislator. 



52 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Truly the boy Lincoln was father to the man Lincoln. 

Within sixty days from the publication of this cir- 
cular the Black Hawk War came on, and a company 
was organized among the pioneers in and about New 
Salem. With many others Lincoln volunteered. Soon 
a captain was to be chosen. There was one avowed 
candidate, a man by the name of Kirkpatrick. Kirk- 
patrick had been an employer of Lincoln at a sawmill. 
One of Lincoln's duties was the handhng of the big 
logs, which called for the exercise of even his giant 
strength. A cant-hook was used, among other things, 
as is common about a sawmill, and in some way or 
other it got lost, strayed, or stolen. Kirkpatrick sug- 
gested buying a new one, to which Lincoln responded: 
''If you will give me the two dollars which the cant 
hook will cost you, I will handle the logs myself with- 
out the aid of a cant hook." Kirkpatrick agreed. 
But Lincoln never got the two dollars, nor the cant- 
hook. Having such a high regard for a man's word 
of honor, Lincoln felt much hurt over Kirkpatrick's 
treatment, though the amount was small. 

At this time it took very httle persuasion from his 
friends in the new company to make him a candidate 
against Kirkpatrick. The custom was for the candi- 
dates to stand up at the head of the line, and those 
who favored either candidate fell in at his side. At 
once fully three-fourths of the men in the new com- 
pany Uned up on the side of Lincoln and the others, 
seeing his overwhelming victory, joined Lincoln and 
left Kirkpatrick standing alone. It was a victory that 
Lincoln very keenly appreciated, especially in view of 
Kirkpatrick's haughty and contemptuous treatment of 
him and his failure to pay him the two dollars, which 
he was abundantly able to do. 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 53 

This was the people's first expression of confidence 
and honor toward Captain Lincoln. He served as 
captain about ninety days, all told, and then returned 
to New Salem, and, contrary to the usual political cus- 
toms in such cases. Captain Lincoln never exploited 
his military experience or honor. Indeed, he rarely 
mentioned it. 

One incident is peculiarly noteworthy because of 
its political significance. In after-years, in the year 
1846, he was elected a member of Congress from the 
Sangamon district. WTiile making a speech touching 
the claims made by the friends of General Cass as to 
his military record, Lincoln made this reference to the 
Black Hawk War: 

''The friends of General Cass, when that gentleman 
was a candidate for the presidency, endeavored to en- 
dow him with a military reputation. Mr. Lincoln, at 
that time a representative in Congress, delivered a 
speech before the House, which, in its allusions to 
General Cass, was exquisitely sarcastic and irresis- 
tibly humorous. 'By the way, Mr. Speaker,' said Mr. 
Lincoln, 'do you know I am a military hero? Yes, 
sir, in the days of the Black Hawk war, I fought, bled 
and came away. Speaking of General Cass's career 
reminds me of my own. I was not at Stillman's Defeat, 
but I was about as near it as Cass to Hull's surrender; 
and like him I saw the place very soon afterward. It 
is quite certain I did not break my sword, for I had 
none to break; but I bent my musket pretty badly on 
one occasion. ... If General Cass went in advance of 
me in picking whortleberries, I guess I surpassed him 
in charges upon the wild onions. If he saw any live, 
fighting Indians, it was more than I did, but I had a 
good many bloody struggles^with the mosquitoes; and 



54 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

although I never fainted from loss of blood, I can truly 
say I was often very hungry.' Mr. Lincoln then went 
on to say that if he should ever turn democrat, and be 
taken up as a candidate for the presidency by the 
democratic party, he hoped they would not make fun 
of him by attempting to make of him a military hero." 

Captain Lincoln returned to New Salem about ten 
days before the election. Naturally the balance of the 
time was spent in furthering his candidacy for the 
State Legislature. He was defeated on the general 
vote, but found much satisfaction and compliment in 
the vote of his own precinct where he received 205 
votes out of a possible 208. Nothing could more con- 
clusively show his popularity at home. 

Immediately he looked about for something to do. 

A man named Berry bought a half-interest in the 
general store kept by the Herndon Brothers. Very 
soon the other brother disposed of his half to Lincoln, 
who was without means to pay for the purchase. 
Herndon relates that he once asked his cousin why he 
sold to Lincoln on such terms, that is, without cash, 
merely taking Lincoln's note. To that the merchant 
said: 

"I believed he was thoroughly honest and that im- 
pression was so strong in me that I accepted his note 
in payment of the whole. Lincoln had no money but 
I would have advanced him still more had he asked 
for it." 

Very soon thereafter another merchant of the town 
by the name of Radford got into a controversy with 
the Clary's Grove boys, and therefore concluded to 
"retire from business." He sold out to William 
Greene, who later sold in turn to Berry and Lincoln, 
accepting their notes. Berry and Lincoln conducted 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 55 

the business for a brief time, Lincoln giving his spare 
time to his studies and Berry giving his spare time to 
consuming the liquor that was a part of the stock. 

In a comparatively short time, not to exceed eight 
months, Berry and Lincoln were ready "to retire." 
They sold out to two brothers by the name of Trent, 
who assumed all the store debts of their predecessors 
and gave their notes for the balance. Before the notes 
fell due the Trents failed and fled to parts unknown, 
and Lincoln was left with about $1,100 to pay. For 
a man absolutely without means, without an income, 
and with no more prospect than Lincoln had at that 
time it is no wonder that he called this his ''National 
Debt." He discharged it in small sums year by year, 
paying off the last cent as late as 1848, from his salary 
as congressman. 

His friends, however, were making Lincoln famous 
in that community as the most intelUgent and best- 
read young man in it. 

One John C. Calhoun, who afterward became fa- 
mous, or infamous, as the president of the Lecompton 
Constitution of Kansas, was then surveyor of Sanga- 
mon County. Calhoun had been a school-teacher and a 
lawyer, was an intelligent and cultivated gentleman 
and a stanch Democrat, well grounded in the doc- 
trines of his party and capable of forcibly presenting 
them in debate. Herndon himself says: 

"I have heard Lincoln say that Calhoun gave him 
more trouble in his debates than Douglas ever did, be- 
cause he was more captivating in his manner and a 
more learned man than Douglas." 

Calhoun offered the position as deputy to Lincoln. 
Lincoln was entirely frank with him and told him that 
his knowledge in mathematics was so defective and 



56 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

his utter ignorance of surveying was such that it 
would be impossible for him to accept the job. 

Calhoun took such a liking to the young man's 
frankness and apparent intelligence that he gave him 
a treatise on surveying by Flint and Gibson, and ad- 
vised him to study it and when he thought he could 
master the subject to report to him, Calhoun, for 
duty. 

Lincoln returned to New Salem and began the new 
venture of quaUfying himself for a deputy county sur- 
veyor. 

As he had mastered his Kirkham the year before 
with Graham's help, he now determined to master 
Flint and Gibson likewise with Graham's help. 

Herndon relates that ''Graham's daughter is au- 
thority for the statement that her father and Lincoln 
frequently sat up until midnight, engrossed in calcula- 
tions, and only ceased when her mother drove them 
out for a fresh supply of wood for the fire." 

Herndon further relates in this connection: 

''He was so studious and absorbed in his apphca- 
tion at one time that his friends, according to a state- 
ment made by one of them, noticed that he was so 
emaciated we feared he might bring on mental de- 
rangement." 

In six weeks, however, he had mastered his book 
and again reported to Calhoun, but before accepting 
the job, knowing Calhoun's intense partisan princi- 
ples, he said: 

"If I can be perfectly free in my political action, I 
will take the office, but if my sentiments or even ex- 
pression of them is to be abridged in any way, I would 
not have it nor any other office." 

He got the job. 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 57 

This was the most money that Lincoln ever got 
for any service up to this time, three dollars per day. 
He became a painstaking, careful, and thorough sur- 
veyor. 

One of his biographers relates that upon one occa- 
sion Lincoln was called to decide or locate a disputed 
corner for some persons in the northern part of the 
county. Among others interested was his friend and 
admirer Henry McHenry. According to the latter's 
recollection, the following happened: 

''After a good deal of disputing we agreed to send 
for Lincoln and to abide by his decision. He came 
with compass, flag-staff, and chain. He stopped with 
me three or four days and surveyed the whole section. 
When in the neighborhood of the disputed corner by 
actual survey he called for his staff, and driving it in 
the ground at a certain spot said 'Gentlemen, here is 
the corner.' We dug down into the ground at the 
point indicated and, lo! there we found about six or 
eight inches of the original stake sharpened at the end 
and beneath which was the usual piece of charcoal 
placed there by Rector the surveyor who laid the 
ground off for the government many years before." 

That part of Illinois was developing very rapidly, 
and Lincoln frequently laid out the original town 
plats. Among these was the town of Petersburg, the 
original survey of which bears Mr. Lincoln's name. 
It is claimed with some show of probabiUty that his 
first chain was not a chain, but rather only a grape- 
vine. 

Several of his biographers relate the fact that once 
his surveyor's instruments were sold to pay one of the 
old Berry debts. A friend came to his rescue, bid in 
the instruments and returned them to Mr. Lincoln. 



58 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

I want to challenge attention to one thing especially 
in connection with his duties as a surveyor: We hear 
much nowadays about surveys, inventories, taking 
stock of everything you have and that the other fellow 
has. Lincoln applied much of the same method and 
philosophy to the survey of every subject that was 
submitted to him for study, consideration, and judg- 
ment, not only in cases in court, but causes in govern- 
ment. 

In his experience as a surveyor he came in contact 
very frequently with the word ''dedicate": the dedi- 
cation of streets, of public grounds, and the laying out 
of his town plats — that is, the giving over, yielding, 
consecrating something to a public use, or a public 
service — and we shall see and learn much of this word 
dedicate in future chapters. 



CHAPTER VI 

LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 

(continued) 

Shortly after Lincoln and Berry had sold out their 
store to the Trent Brothers, and the whole thing had 
"petered out," as Lincoln said, Lincoln was commis- 
sioned postmaster at New Salem by President Jack- 
son, though he was known at the time to be a stanch 
Whig. 

The duties were not very burdensome, the mail arriv- 
ing only once a week. The post-office was really under 
Lincoln's hat, where he carried the mail in his trips 
around the neighborhood. The office was nominally 
in the Hill store of New Salem. The small salary, 
however, was the most insignificant part of it. 

The really important thing was the efficiency of 
the postmaster, who gave universal satisfaction in 
his management of the office and had the opportunity 
of reading all the newspapers that came to the office, 
which furnished him his information as to current 
events. Nobody will ever be able fairly to estimate 
the large fund of information of a pubhc nature that 
Abraham Lincoln gathered from the great newspapers 
of that day by his inveterate reading and study. 

In 1834 he again became a candidate for the legis- 
lature upon substantially the same declaration of 
principles on which he made his canvass in 1832. He 
was elected by an unusually large vote. His friend 
59 



60 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

John T. Stuart, afterward his partner, was also a can- 
didate on that same ticket. Lincobi, however, led 
Stuart by more than 200, a very flattering vote indeed. 

Some say he walked to the capital to be inducted 
into office, some say he rode on horseback, some by 
stage. It is immaterial which way he went. Every- 
body knows that he was so poor that he had to borrow 
money to buy suitable clothing, and to take care of 
his preliQiinary expenses while at the State capital, 
which was then Vandalia. The preponderance of the 
evidence, however, suggests that he went to the capi- 
tal by stage-coach, as the pubUc generally did in that 
day. 

During his first term he conducted himself with 
becoming modesty and took little part in the pubhc 
discussions, but he had a keen eye and discriminating 
judgment to learn the ''ropes" of procedure and par- 
liamentary law, of committee work, and the general 
legislative machinery of the State. 

As one man. Mentor Graham, was big in his in- 
fluence on Lincoln at New Salem, so here at Vandalia, 
and aUke at the new capital of Springfield, there were 
many big young men, full of the fibre and fire of the 
frontier, that made a wonderful impression upon Lin- 
coln, knocked off many of his sharp edges and rough 
corners, and qualified him for useful and distinguished 
service as a member of the legislature, and later as 
a member of the bar. 

The legislative sessions then, as they should be now, 
were short, and his brief service during his first term 
seems to have whetted his appetite for further poHt- 
ical honors. He became a candidate again in 1836, 
as fully appears from the following circular in the San- 
gamon Journal: 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 61 

"New Salem, June 13, 1836. 
''To the Editor of the Journal: 

"In your paper of last Saturday I see a communica- 
tion over the signature of 'Many Voters' in which 
the candidates who are announced in the Journal are 
called upon to 'show their hands.' Agreed. Here's 
mine: 

"I go for all sharing the privileges of the government 
who assist in bearing its burdens. Consequently, I 
go for admitting all whites to the right of suffrage who 
pay taxes or bear arms (by no means excluding fe- 
males). 

"If elected I shall consider the whole people of San- 
gamon my constituents, as well those that oppose as 
those that support me. 

"While acting as their Representative, I shall be 
governed by their will on all subjects upon which I 
have the means of knowing what their will is; and 
upon all others I shall do what my own judgment 
teaches me will best advance their interests. Whether 
elected or not, I go for distributing the proceeds of 
the sales of public lands to the several States to en- 
able our State, in common with others, to dig canals 
and construct railroads without borrowing money 
and paying the interest on it. 

"If alive on the first Monday in November, I shall 
vote for Hugh L. White, for President. 

"Very respectfully, 

"A. Lincoln." 

For a simple, short-cut, straightforward declara- 
tion of principles, it is hard to beat. Much of it is 
apropos to-day and might well be imitated by modern 
would-be statesmen. 



62 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

During this time Lincoln was gradually shaping his 
political ambition to some definite political pro- 
gramme. Naturally the psychology of the political 
situation of Illinois at that time appealed to him most 
strongly, and the one great ambition of his life of that 
day was to become the ''DeWitt Clinton of Illinois" — 
DeWitt Clinton, it will be remembered, was the great 
governor of New York, who became famous for the 
canals and other internal improvements of that State. 

As Lincoln had done in Indiana, as he had done at 
New Salem, so he did at Vandalia and Springfield: 
organized literary societies. 

The Springfield Society was called by the somewhat 
dignified name of "Lyceum." 

In the campaign of 1836 for the State Legislature a 
joint debate was held just before the election. Sub- 
stantially all of the candidates participated. The argu- 
ment became very heated and very bitter. A duel 
seemed about to result, when Lincoln, with his spirit 
of fairness and justice to all the disputants, quieted 
the tumult. The meeting adjourned with compara- 
tively good feeling among all the candidates. 

It was during this campaign that Joshua F. Speed, 
a great friend of Lincoln's, describes a meeting held at 
Springfield about this same time: 

''The crowd was large and great numbers of his 
friends and admirers had come in from the country. 
I remember that his speech was a very able one, using 
with great power and originality all the arguments 
used to sustain the principles of the Whig party as 
against its great rival, the Democratic party of that 
day. The speech produced a profound impression — 
the crowd was with him. George Forquer, an old citi- 
zen, a man of recognized prominence and ability as a 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 63 

lawyer, was present. Forquer had been a Whig — one 
of the champions of the party — but had then recently 
joined the Democratic party, and almost simultane- 
ous with the change had been appointed Register of 
the Land Office, which office he then held. Just about 
that time Mr. Forquer had completed a neat frame 
house — the best house then in Springfield — and over 
it had erected a lightning rod, the only one in the place 
and the first one Mr. Lincoln had ever seen. He after- 
wards told me that seeing Forquer' s lightning rod had 
led him to the study of the properties of electricity 
and the utility of the rod as a conductor. At the con- 
clusion of Lincoln's speech the crowd was about dis- 
persing, when Forquer rose and asked to be heard. 
He commenced by saying that the young man would 
have to be taken down, and was sorry the task de- 
volved on him. He then proceeded to answer Lin- 
coln's speech in a style which, while it was able and 
fair, in his whole manner asserted and claimed superi- 
ority. Lincoln stood a few steps away with arms 
folded, carefully watching the speaker and taking in 
everything he said. He was laboring under a good 
deal of suppressed excitement. Forquer's sting had 
roused the lion within him. At length Forquer con- 
cluded, and he mounted the stand to reply. 

''I have heard hun often since," continued Speed, 
''in the courts and before the people, but never saw 
him appear and acquit himself so well as upon that 
occasion. His reply to Forquer was characterized by 
great dignity and force. I shall never forget the con- 
clusion of that speech: 'Mr. Forquer commenced his 
speech by announcing,' said Lincoln, 'that the young 
man would have to be taken down. It is for you, 
fellow citizens, not for me to say whether I am up or 



64 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

down. The gentleman has seen fit to allude to my 
being a young man; but he forgets that I am older in 
years than I am in the tricks and trades of politicians. 
I desire to live, and I desire place and distinction; but 
I would rather die now than, like the gentleman, live 
to see the day that I would change my pohtics for an 
office worth three thousand dollars a year, and then 
feel compelled to erect a lightning rod to protect a 
guilty conscience from an offended God.' 

"The effect of this reply can readily be imagined." 
Another incident that throws some light upon the 
spirit of the time as well as the versatility of Lincoln 
occurred in his campaign for the State Legislature in 
1838. 
Herndon* gives the account of it as follows: 
"Among the Democratic orators who stumped the 
county at this time was one Taylor — commonly known 
at Colonel Dick Taylor. He was a showy, bombastic 
man, with a weakness for fine clothes and other per- 
sonal adornments. Frequently he was pitted against 
Lincoln, and indulged in many bitter flings at the 
lordly ways and aristocratic pretensions of the Whigs. 
He had a way of appealing to ' his horny-handed neigh- 
bors,' and resorted to many other artful tricks of a 
demagogue. When he was one day expatiating in his 
accustomed style, Lincoln, in a spirit of mischief and, 
as he expressed it, Ho take the wind out of his sails,' 
slipped up to the speaker's side, and catching his vest 
by the lower edge gave it a sharp pull. The latter in- 
stantly opened and revealed to his astonished hearers 
a ruffled shirt-front glittering with watch-chain, seals, 
and other golden jewels. The effect was startUng. 
The speaker stood confused and dumbfounded, while 

* Vol. I, page 185. 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 65 

the audience roared with laughter. When it came 
Lincoln's turn to answer he covered the gallant colonel 
over in this style : ' While Colonel Taylor was making 
these charges against the Whigs over the country, rid- 
ing in fine carriages, wearing ruffled shirts, kid gloves, 
massive gold w^atch-chains with large gold seals, and 
flourishing a heavy gold-headed cane, I was a poor 
boy, hired on a flat-boat at eight dollars a month, and 
had only one pair of breeches to my back, and they 
were buckskin. Now, if you know the nature of buck- 
skin when wet and dried by the sun, it will shrink; 
and my breeches kept shrinking until they left several 
inches of my legs bare between the tops of my socks 
and the lower part of my breeches; and whilst I was 
growing taller they were becoming shorter, and so 
much tighter that they left a blue streak around my 
legs that can be seen to this day. If you call this 
aristocracy I plead guilty to the charge.'" 

Another event in the following campaign of 1840 is 
worthy of mention as showing some new sides to 
Lincoln. 

One of his biographers gives this account of what 
became known in Springfield as the ''skinning" of 
Thomas : 

''Jesse B. Thomas, one of the men who had repre- 
sented the Democratic side in the great debate in the 
Presbyterian Church (earlier in the campaign) in a 
speech at the court house, indulged in some fun at 
the expense of the 'Long Nine,' reflecting somewhat 
more on Lincoln than the rest. The latter was not 
present, but being apprised by his friends of what had 
been said, hastened to the meeting, and soon after 
Thomas closed, stepped upon the platform and re- 
sponded. The substance of his speech on this occasion 



66 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

was not so memorable as the manner of its delivery. 
He felt the sting of Thomas's allusions, and for the 
first time, on the stump or in public, resorted to mimicry 
for effect. In this, as will be seen later on, he was with- 
out a rival. He imitated Thomas in gesture and voice, 
at times caricaturing his walk and the very motion of 
his body. Thomas, like everybody else, had some 
peculiarities of expression and gesture, and these Lin- 
coln succeeded in rendering more prominent than ever. 
The crowd yelled and cheered as he continued. En- 
couraged by these demonstrations, the ludicrous fea- 
tures of the speaker's performance gave way to in- 
tense and scathing ridicule. Thomas, who was obliged 
to sit near by and endure the pain of this unique ordeal, 
was ordinarily sensitive; but the exhibition goaded 
him to desperation. He was so thoroughly wrought 
up with suppressed emotion that he actually gave 
way to tears." 

It is related that shortly thereafter, Lincoln, feeling 
that possibly he had gone too far, saw Thomas and 
made ample apology for his strictures. Acknowledg- 
ment of wrong with appropriate apology is the act of 
a just man. 

As we have before seen, Lincoln met big books and 
studied them; he also met big men and studied them, 
clear through from cover to cover, books and men. 
He knew their strength and their weakness, emulated 
the one and avoided the other. 

Among these men who were members either of the 
legislature or members of the bar at Springfield, or 
the famous eighth judicial district were the following: 
Douglas, Baker, Davis, Hardin, McClernand, Brown- 
ing, Treat, Edwards, Trumbull, McDougal, and many 
others. Indeed, in the first legislature of which Lin- 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 67 

coin was a member there were numbered not only a 
future President of the United States and a future 
candidate for the presidency, but six future members 
of the United States Senate, eight future members of 
the House of Representatives, future Cabinet members, 
future judges of the State, and many other men who 
later distinguished themselves as citizens or as officers. 

Surely, there were giants in those days. 

Lincoln, during his first and second terms in the 
legislature had so capably conducted the affairs of 
the State on matters of legislation, and so successfully 
led his party, that upon his election for the third term 
in 1838, he was the party's unanimous choice for 
speaker; the Democrats being in the majority, how- 
ever, he simply became the minority leader. He easily 
maintained his prestige in the legislature and upon 
re-election for the last time in 1840 he was again his 
party's choice for speaker. 

He was urged again to become a candidate but de- 
clined, evidently looking to higher honors, for in 1842, 
he became a candidate for Congress against John J. 
Hardin and Edward Baker, both capable men. Hardin 
was nominated and elected and served one term, which 
seems to have been the rule of service in that district 
at that time. 

Following him in 1844, Baker was nominated, though 
Lincoln was again a candidate. Each time Lincoln 
pressed his candidacy to the point where he felt it was 
unavailing to insist further, and then supported the 
candidacy of both Hardin and Baker respectively. 

In 1846 Lincoln was nominated and elected. The 
canvass was a very interesting and a very bitter one 
personally. His opposing candidate was the famous 
Reverend Peter Cartwright, a circuit-rider in the dis- 



68 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

trict for years, who probably knew more men person- 
ally in the district than even did Lincoln. 

Lincoln's religious views, or the want of them at 
that time, got into the controversy, but the people's 
faith in Lincoln could not be discredited, and he 
emerged from the canvass stronger than ever. 

The biography Lincoln furnished for the congres- 
sional directory, after his election, is of especial in- 
terest as another proof of his brevity and directness, 
as well as his humility: 

''Born February 12, 1809, Hardin County, Ken- 
tucky. 

''Education, defective. 

"Profession, lawyer. 

"Military service, captain of volunteers in the Black 
Hawk War. 

"Offices held: postmaster at a very small office; 
four times a member of the Illinois Legislature, and 
elected to the Lower House of the next Congress." 

He took his seat in the National Congress the first 
Monday of December, 1847. His legislative experi- 
ence at Springfield, Illinois, during foiu* terms of the 
legislature, as well as his legal experience at the bar, 
also his experience upon the stump in the discussion 
of the great public questions of the day, had so equipped 
him for his service in the Federal Congress that it was 
not long before he was heard from in a most surprising 
and striking way. 

For many years the old rule applied that first-term 
congressmen in either house must be silent and duly 
deferential to the powers that be. Lincoln was neither, 
but preferred to smash the precedent in both respects. 

At the same time that Lincoln became a member of 
the lower house Douglas became one of the youngest 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 69 

members of the upper house. Before thirty days of 
the congressional session had elapsed, to wit, the 22d 
day of December, Lincoln introduced a series of reso- 
lutions that have become known as the ''Spot Resolu- 
tions." These resolutions are worthy of particular 
mention. 

''Whereas, The President of the United States, in 
his message of May 11, 1846, has declared that 'the 
Mexican Government not only refused to receive him 
(the envoy of the United States) or listen to his propo- 
sitions, but, after a long-continued series of menaces, 
has at last invaded our territory, and shed the blood 
of our fellow citizens on our own soil': 

"And again, in his message of December 8, 1846, 
that 'We had ample cause of war against Mexico long 
before the breaking out of hostilities; but even then 
we forebore to take redress into om* own hands until 
Mexico herself became the aggressor, by invading our 
soil in hostile array, and shedding the blood of our 
citizens' : 

"And yet again, in his message of December 7, 1847, 
that 'The Mexican Government refused even to hear 
the terms of adjustment which he (our minister of 
peace) was authorized to propose, and finally, under 
wholly unjustifiable pretexts, involved the two coun- 
tries in war, by invading the territory of the State of 
Texas, striking the first blow, and shedding the blood 
of our citizens on our own soil,' and, 

"Whereas, This House is desirous to obtain a full 
knowledge of all the facts which go to establish whether 
the particular spot on which the blood of our citizens 
was so shed was or was not at that time 'our own soil': 
therefore, 

''Resolved by the House of Representatives, That the 



70 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

President of the United States be respectfully re- 
quested to inform this house: 

"1st. Whether the spot on which the blood of our 
citizens was shed, as in his messages declared, was or 
was not within the territory of Spain, at least after 
the treaty of 1819, until the Mexican revolution. 

"2d. Whether that spot is or is not within the 
territory which was wrested from Spain by the revo- 
lutionary Government of Mexico. 

"3d. Whether that spot is or is not within a settle- 
ment of people, which settlement has existed ever 
since long before the Texas revolution, and until its 
inhabitants fled before the approach of the United 
States army. 

"4th. Whether that settlement is or is not isolated 
from any and all other settlements by the Gulf and the 
Rio Grande on the south and west, and by wide unin- 
habited regions on the north and east. 

"5th. Whether the people of that settlement, or a 
majority of them, or any of them, have ever submitted 
themselves to the government or laws of Texas or of 
the United States, by consent or by compulsion, either 
by accepting oflSce, or voting at elections, or paying 
tax, or serving on juries, or having process served 
upon them, or in any other way. 

"6th. Whether the people of that settlement did 
or did not flee from the approach of the United States 
army, leaving unprotected their homes and their grow- 
ing crops, before the blood was shed, as in the messages 
stated; and whether the first blood, so shed, was or 
was not shed within the inclosure of one of the people 
who had thus fled from it. 

"7th. Whether our citizens, whose blood was shed, 
as in his messages declared, were or were not, at that 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 71 

time, armed officers and soldiers, sent into that settle- 
ment by the military order of the President, through 
the Secretary of War. 

"8th. Whether the military force of the United 
States was or was not so sent into that settlement after 
General Taylor had more than once intimated to the 
War Department that, in his opinion, no such move- 
ment was necessary to the defense or protection of 
Texas." 

These resolutions clearly show Lincoln's full famil- 
iarity with the subject which he was deaUng with. They 
show him going to the very crux of the controversy. 

Lincoln evidently was a party man in its best sense. 
In his eulogy upon Henry Clay in 1852 he said : 

''A free people in times of peace and quiet when 
pressed by no common danger, naturally divide into 
parties. At such times the man who is not of either 
party is not, cannot be, of any consequence. Mr. Clay, 
therefore, was of a party." 

The northern division of the Whig party devoutly 
beheved that the Mexican War was nothing less than 
an efifort to increase slave territory and slave power. 
But the country was at war and the very serious and 
delicate dilemma arose of denouncing the cause and 
occasion of the war and at the same time supporting 
the government in voting the necessary funds and sup- 
pUes. 

There were many charges of disloyalty and treason 
to the government made against leading Whigs, Lin- 
coln among the number, especially after his speech on 
the 12th of January, 1848. 

This speech is a marvel for the thoroughness of 
knowledge and entire familiarity with all the facts sur- 
rounding the beginning of the war. It showed in a 



72 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

striking manner how thoroughly Lincoln went to the 
bottom of things before he presented his views to the 
public. 

His clear, concise reasoning, his plain, pointed speech, 
his demonstration of his position on the unjustifiable- 
ness of the war were unanswerable. For logic and lan- 
guage this address deserves to rank with any other 
great argumentative Lincoln ever made; and still there 
were many who did not recognize in this speech the 
coming man. 

Notwithstanding the Whig opposition to the war, 
the pohtical paradox presents itself in 1848 of the same 
Whig party nominating, supporting, and electing the 
real hero of the Mexican War, General Taylor, and 
electing him on account of his military record and 
prestige, — for he had no political record, which seems to 
have been one of his chief qualifications. Clay, the 
candidate of many campaigns, had, as many other men 
have had, too much record. 

Lincoln made a speech in which he rigorously ridi- 
culed General Cass, the opposing candidate to General 
Taylor. He said, after quoting from the record to show 
where General Cass had stood on slavery, particularly 
the Wilmot Proviso: 

"These extracts show that in 1846 General Cass was 
for the Proviso at once, that in March, 1847, he was 
still for it, but not just then; and that in December he 
was against it altogether. This is a true index to the 
whole man. When the question was raised in 1846, he 
was in a blustering hurry to take ground for it, . . . 
but soon he began to see glimpses of the great demo- 
cratic ox-gad waving in his face, and to hear indis- 
tinctly, a voice saying, 'back! back, sir! back a 
Uttle!' He shakes his head, and bats his eyes, and 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 73 

blunders back to his position of March, 1847; but still 
the gad waves, and the voice grows more distinct and 
sharper still — ' back, sir ! back, I say ! further back ! ' 
and back he goes to the position of December, 1847; 
at which the gad is still, and the voice soothingly says 
— 'so! stand still at that !' " 

While not in diplomatic phrase, it certainly had 
dynamic force. 

Lincoln was not a candidate for re-election. In 
discussing the matter in a letter to Herndon in Janu- 
ary, 1848, he says: 

" January 8, 1848. 
" Dear William : . . . 

''As to speech-making, by way of getting the hang 
of the House I made a little speech two or three days 
ago on a post-office question of no general interest. I 
find speaking here and elsewhere about the same thing. 
I am about as badly scared, and no worse, as I am when 
I speak in court. I expect to make one within a week 
or two, in which I hope to succeed well enough to wish 
you to see it. 

"It is very pleasant to learn from you that there are 
some who desire that I should be reelected. I most 
heartily thank them for their kind partiality; and I 
can say, as Mr. Clay said of the annexation of Texas, 
that 'personally I would not object' to a reelection, 
although I thought at the time, and still think, it 
would be quite as well for me to return to the law at 
the end of a single term. I made the declaration that 
I would not be a candidate again, more from a wish to 
deal fairly with others, to keep peace among our friends, 
and to keep the district from going to the enemy, than 
for any cause personal to myself; so that, if it should 



74 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

so happen that nobody else wishes to be elected, I could 
not refuse the people the right of sending me again. 
But to enter myself as a competitor of others, or to 
authorize any one so to enter me, is what my word and 
honor forbid.'^ 

Lincoln, after declining to be a candidate for re- 
election, entered heartily into the campaign for the 
election of General Taylor. In that behalf he made 
a campaign trip through New England which is of 
special interest here. 

As to this, the Boston Advertiser reports: 

*'Mr. Lincoln has a very tall and thin figure, with 
an intellectual face, showing a searching mind and a 
cool judgment. He spoke in a clear and cool and very 
eloquent manner, carrjdng the audience with him in 
his able arguments and brilliant illustrations, only 
interrupted by warm and frequent applause. He began 
by expressing a real feeling of modesty in addressing 
an audience 'this side of the mountains, a part of the 
country where, in the opinion of the people of his sec- 
tion, everybody was supposed to be instructed and 
wise. But he had devoted his attention to the ques- 
tion of the coming presidential election, and was not 
unwilhng to exchange with all whom he might meet 
the ideas to which he had arrived.' This passage gives 
some reason to suppose that, conscious of his powers, 
he was disposed to try them before audiences some- 
what different from those to which he had been ac- 
customed, and therefore, he had come to New Eng- 
land." 

Lincoln also made a speech at Boston, which, ac- 
cording to the newspaper report, was ''seldom equalled 
for sound reason, cogent argument and keen satire." 



LINCOLN ENTERS POLITICS 75 

Three cheers were given for the ''Lone Star" of II- 
Unois, Lincoln being the only Whig member from that 
State. 

All the reports of this campaign from the press and 
interviews by leading politicians of the day show that 
Lincoln had made a wonderful impression upon all 
his audiences, and that he appreciably advanced the 
cause of General Taylor as a presidential candidate. 

Herndon records the fact that while making a speech 
at Dedham in that campaign where he had spoken 
only a half-hour, the following occurred: 

"The bell that called to the steam cars sounded. 
Mr. Lincoln instantly stopped. 'I am engaged to 
speak at Cambridge to-night,' said he, 'and I must 
leave.' The whole audience seemed to rise in protest. 
'Oh, no! go on! finish it!' was heard on every hand. 
One gentleman arose and pledged himself to take his 
horse and carry hmi across the country. But Mr. 
Lincoln was inexorable. 'I can't take any risks,' said 
he. 'I have engaged to go to Cambridge, and I must 
be there. I came here as I agreed, and I am going 
there in the same way.' A more disappointed audience 
was never seen; but Mr, Lincoln had fairly wakened 
it up, and it stayed through the afternoon and into 
the evening to listen to other speakers. We tried to 
get him to come again, but was impossible." 

After this campaign Lincoln returned to Springfield, 
Illinois. Following the election, he returned again to 
Washington, where he remained until March 4, 1849, 
which closed his congressional career. 

An interesting fact here appears. His prominence 
in the campaign of 1848, especially his defense of Gen- 
eral Taylor personally as a fit man for President, led 
some of his friends to make some effort with the ad- 



76 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

ministration to procure for him a desirable presidential 
appointment. 

It is said with a show of probability that the Presi- 
dent tendered him the governorship of the territory 
of Oregon, as well as the choice of some other Western 
appointments. Acceptance would have required, how- 
ever, his removal from Springfield. It is said that the 
decisive vote was finally cast by Mrs. Lincoln, and the 
country will never know how much it may be indebted 
to Mrs. Lincoln for this veto. 



CHAPTER VII 

LINCOLN THE LAWYER 

Aside from a few military heroes, and one or two 
other notable exceptions, the lawyer has been the occu- 
pant of the White House from the birth of the nation 
until the present hour. 

He has constituted the potential and generally the 
numerical majority in both houses of Congress; of ne- 
cessity he has occupied the Federal bench to the ex- 
clusion of all other professions. And what has been 
true in the nation has been true in a more or less 
degree in most of the several States, so that, for good or 
ill, we have had very largely a government by lawyers. 

For twenty-foiu" years before becoming President 
Abraham Lincoln was engaged in the practice of law 
in both State and Federal courts at Springfield, Ilhnois. 
His preparation for his chosen profession should be of 
intense interest, not only to the layman but to his 
fellow lawyers as well. 

His biographers generally agree that the first law- 
book ever coming into his hands was the ''Revised 
Statutes of Indiana," which he borrowed while living 
in Indiana from the township constable, one David 
Tumham. 

This volume contained not only the statutes of In- 
diana but also the Constitution of Indiana, the Con- 
stitution of the United States, the Declaration of In- 
dependence, the Ordinance of 1787. 

That he read and reread, studied, and hterally de- 
voiu-ed this book there can be no doubt. 

77 



78 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

The book itself, now treasured by Mrs. Emma 
Winters, of Brooklyn, the wife of a former librarian 
of the New York Law Institute, attests hard service. 

Turnham himself is authority for the statement that 
this book had much to do with influencing the boy to 
study law as his chosen profession. We are not ad- 
vised as to when this was, but it must have been some 
time prior to his majority. 

Some biographers have made light of the influence 
of this volume on the mind of young Lincoln. But 
inasmuch as it was his perverse habit to devour prac- 
tically every book that he could get his hands on, it is 
not improbable that this volume suffered the same 
fate. 

One thing is quite sure, that the Declaration of In- 
dependence therein found became finally the warp and 
woof of all his political ideas and inspirations. This 
fact is more than confirmed in his many addresses, 
especially in his speech at Philadelphia, which will be 
referred to in the chapter of Lincoln's Interpretation 
of the Declaration of Independence. 

The very scarcity of his books enhanced their value 
to him, and it is not difficult to presume that this 
book, at least upon constitutional law, State and 
federal, the Declaration of Independence, and the 
Ordinance of 1787 furnished much food for his hungry 
and precocious mind. 

The next book he read was Blackstone, and this 
while clerking in the store for Offut, at New Salem, 
and also when a merchant on his own account in part- 
nership with Berry. 

Tradition at least records that some traveller came 
that way who had a surplus barrel of junk which he 
no longer cared to carry. He sold it to Lincoln for 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 79 

fifty cents, barrel and contents. At the bottom of 
this barrel were two volumes of Blackstone. 

At all events, he read Blackstone while at New 
Salem. He not only read it, he studied it, he mastered 
it, he knew it from cover to cover. Much of his clear, 
concise legal style is readily attributable to his famili- 
arity with Blackstone's legal Enghsh. 

In his campaign for the legislature he met Major 
John T. Stuart, of Springfield, one of the leading law- 
yers of Illinois. Stuart encouraged him in the study 
of law and loaned him a number of law-books, which 
Lincoln took with him from Springfield back to New 
Salem. 

Lincoln himself has spoken upon this subject in the 
following words: 

''I began to read those famous works (Blackstone's 
* Commentaries ') and I had plenty of time, for during 
the long sunmier days when the farmers were busy 
with their crops, my customers were few and far be- 
tween. And the more I read the more intensely in- 
terested I became. Never in my whole life was my 
mind so thoroughly absorbed. I read until I devoured 
them." 

Some years afterward Lincoln was asked by a young 
man as to how to study law, to which inquiry he re- 
sponded : 

"Get books and read and study them carefully. 
Begin with Blackstone's Commentaries, and after 
reading carefully through, say twice, take Chitty's 
Pleadings, Greenleaf's Evidence, and Story's Equity 
in succession. Work, work, work is the main thing." 

One can but regret that so many of our so-called 
modern schools of law have omitted from their course 
of educational training such standard works as Lin- 



80 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

coin mentions, works that deal scientifically with the 
fundamental and philosophical principles of the law. 

These masterpieces of legal logic and language have 
been supplanted by a number of so-called ''case books," 
a mere collection in more or less abbreviated form of 
the judgments pronounced by some judge or court. 

Now every judge of experience well knows that the 
primary idea in the opinion of the judge speaking for 
the court is to support and sustain the judgment en- 
tered in the particular case, with a view of discussing 
only the questions raised in that particular case. Be- 
yond that it is a mere obiter dictum. 

The judge rendering the opinion is primarily not 
concerned with an orderly scientific discussion of the 
fundamental principle involved, its origin, history, and 
development. He applies it only to the particular 
case in defense of the particular judgment. 

"Case law" is fast becoming the great bane of the 
bench and bar. 

Our old-time great thinkers and profound reasoners 
who conspicuously honored and distinguished our 
jurisprudence have been succeeded very largely by 
an industrious, painstaking, far-searching army of 
sleuths, of the type of Sherlock Holmes, hunting some 
precedent in some case, confidently assured that if the 
search be long enough and far enough some apparently 
parallel case may be found to justify even the most 
absurd and ridiculous contention. 

Case after case is piled, Ossa on Pelion, and about 
an equal number can be found on each side; then the 
court is expected to strike the balance and decide ac- 
cording to the preponderance of cases, rather than 
the preponderance of reason and justice. 

After all, the case is at most an illustration of some 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 81 

great underlying fundamental principle, and is help- 
ful only to the degree that it tends to demonstrate or 
illustrate the soundness and application of the prin- 
ciple. The lawyer and law student are intensely in- 
terested in the principle. Scientific treatises upon 
these fundamental principles of law and equity have 
a proper place in any hbrary, but imagine a library 
made up of case books, — illustrations, at best. Car- 
toons are often very pertinent and are helpful, but 
they do not yet make a satisfactory library. 

Think of such a hbrary as compared with the old 
masters Hke Blackstone, Chitty, Greenleaf, Story, 
and Kent, Cooley, Bishop, Thompson, and the like, 
or even as compared with the library Lincoln had 
when at Springfield. 

Hill, in his splendid book ''Lincoln the Lawyer," 
says : * 

''A part of Mr. Lincoln's law library of 1861 is still 
in existence. In the Lambert collection: Illinois Con- 
veyancer; Angell on Limitations. In the Vanuxem- 
Potter collection: A volume containing the Declara- 
tion of Independence, etc.; Chitty 's Pleadings and 
Parties; Stephen's Conmientaries on the Laws of Eng- 
land; Greenleaf on Evidence, vol. I; Revised Statutes 
of lUinois, 1844; Kent's Commentaries; Smith's Land- 
lord and Tenant; Story's Equity Jurisprudence, 1843; 
Parsons' Law of Contracts, 2 vols. ; Wharton's Criminal 
Law; Redfield's Law of Railways; Stephen's Plead- 
ing. In the Orendorf collection: Barbour & Herring- 
ton, Eq. Dig., Vol. 3; Biddle & McMurtrie, Index to 
Eng. Com. Law, 2 vols.; Taylor on Poisons in Rela- 
tion to Medical Jurisprudence; Barbour's Eq. Dig. 
of U. S. etc.; 3 Curtis' U. S. Dig., 1846; Chitty & 

* Footnote, page 292. 



82 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Temple, Law of Carriers; Angell & Ames on Corpora- 
tions; 1 U. S. Digest for 1847." 

We do know that the authors of the works studied 
and recommended by Lincoln, have, during a long 
period of years, been universally recognized as the 
leading masters of law and logic. To omit them from 
the law student's curriculum would seem like omit- 
ting the Bible from a school of theology or Gray's 
"Anatomy" from a school of medicine. 

After all, the primary and original principles of law 
and equity, as announced by these legal masters, have 
never been surpassed in our legal lore, and they are 
to-day quoted as standards in practically all the courts 
of our land. 

Lincoln's advice to the young lawyer is strikingly 
significant in another respect, to wit, the logical order 
in which he names the books for the young law student 
to read: 

1. The body of the law as scientifically arranged 
and stated by Blackstone, the greatest law-book of 
its day, perhaps of any other day. 

2. The manner of framing a legal issue, as described 
and discussed in Chitty's "Pleadings." 

3. The manner of proving that issue — the evidence, 
and testimony, what is competent and what is not 
competent, and the measure of proof required, etc., 
as viewed by Greenleaf. 

4. The conscience of the chancellor is appealed to 
as a court of equity to provide a remedy for some wrong 
wherein the law is short or deficient, and Story, the 
great jurist, is admittedly a master in this branch of 
our jurisprudence. 

Lincoln has heretofore expressed his own view of 
the study of the law by the word ''devoured." Hern- 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 83 

don relates* an interesting and characteristic incident in 
Lincoln's early studies, where he draws a most signifi- 
cant distinction between reading and studying. Let 
the student emulate it. It occurred while Lincoln was 
living at New Salem: 

A man by the name of Russell Godby employed 
Lincoln to do farm work. One day he was much sur- 
prised to find him sitting barefoot on the summit of 
a woodpile and attentively reading a book, 

" This being an unusual thing for farm hands in 
that early day to do, I asked him," relates Godby, 
"what he was reading. ' I'm not reading,' he answered. 
' I am studying.' ' Studying what ? ' I enquired. ' Law, 
sir,' was the emphatic response. It was really too 
much for me, as I looked at him sitting there proud 
as Cicero. 'Great God Almighty!' I exclaimed and 
passed on." 

As Lincoln said before: 

"The more I read (Blackstone) the more intensely 
interested I became. Never in my whole life was my 
mind so thoroughly absorbed. I read until I devoured 
them." 

At last the youth had found the yearning of his Ufe. 
He was not only "thoroughly absorbed," but entirely 
obhvious to everything else. His conduct caused much 
comment in the neighborhood: 

"He dwelt altogether in the land of thought. His 
deep meditation and abstraction easily induced the 
belief among his horny handed companions that he 
was lazy. . . . His chief delight during the day if 
unmolested was to lie down under the shade of some 
inviting tree and read and study. . . . No one had 
a^more retentive memory. If he read or heard a good 

* Vol. I, page 102. 



84 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

thing it never escaped him. His power of concentration 
was intense, and in the abiUty through analysis to strip 
bare a proposition he was unexcelled. His thoughtful 
and investigating mind dug down after ideas and 
never stopped until bottom facts were reached." 

Constable Turnham says as to his later years in 
Indiana : 

''As he shot up he seemed to change in appearance 
and action. Although quick-witted and ready with 
an answer, he began to exhibit deep thoughtfulness 
and was so often lost in studied reflection we could 
not help noticing the strange turn in his actions." 

Herndon says:* 

"But Lincoln kept on at his studies. Wherever he 
was and whenever he could do so the book was brought 
into use. He carried it with him in his rambles through 
the woods and his walks to the river. When night 
came he read it by the aid of any friendly light he could 
find. Frequently he went down to the cooper's shop and 
kindled a fire out of the waste material lying about, and 
by the light it afforded read until far into the night." 

Herndon quotes one of his companions as saying: 

"He never appeared to be a hard student, as he 
seemed to master his studies with little effort, until he 
commenced the study of the law. In that he became 
wholly engrossed, and began for the first time to avoid 
the society of men, in order that he might have more 
time for study, "f 

Henry McHenry, who knew him well said: 

"He was so studious and absorbed in his applica- 
tion at one time that his friends noticed that he was 
so emaciated we feared it might bring on mental de- 
rangement." 

* Vol. I, page 102. t Herndon, vol. I, p. 112. 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 85 

Holland says: 

''One who remembers his habits during this period 
says that he went, day after day, for weeks, and sat 
under an oak tree on a hill near New Salem and read, 
moving around to keep in the shade, as the sun moved. 
He was so much absorbed that some people thought 
and said that he was crazy. Not unfrequently he met 
and passed his best friends without noticing them. 
The truth was that he had found the pursuit of his 
life, and had become very much in earnest." 

His presence in Springfield during his first term in 
the legislature afforded him a splendid opportunity of 
fm-ther pursuing his studies and meeting also some of 
the really big lawyers of IlUnois. They seemed to give 
him hope and spur and help materially to ''stir the 
gifts that were within him." 

Upon his admission to the bar in March, 1837, he 
was paid the very high compliment of being invited 
to become the junior partner of Major John T. Stuart, 
a fellow member of the Illinois Legislature. Stuart 
knew better than any one else the thoroughness of 
Lincoln's equipment for a great legal career. 

Lincoln's friend, Joshua F. Speed, relates in a very 
interesting way Lincoln's arrival in Springfield to 
practise law as follows: 

"He had ridden into town on a borrowed horse," 
relates Speed, ''and engaged from the only cabinet- 
maker in the village a single bedstead. He came into 
my store, set his saddle-bags on the counter, and en- 
quired what the furniture for a single bedstead would 
cost. I took slate and pencil, made a calculation, and 
found the sum for furniture complete would amount 
to seventeen dollars in all. Said he: 'It is probably 
cheap enough; but I want to say that, cheap as it is. 



86 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

I have not the money to pay. But if you will credit 
me until Christmas, and my experiment here as a 
lawyer is a success, I will pay you then. If I fail in 
that I will probably never pay you at all.' The tone 
of his voice was so melancholy that I felt for him. I 
looked up at him and I thought then, as I think now, 
that I never saw so gloomy and melancholy a face in 
my hfe. I said to him, 'So small a debt seems to 
affect you so deeply, I think I can suggest a plan by 
which you will be able to attain your end without in- 
curring any debt. I have a very large room and a 
very large double bed in it, which you are perfectly 
welcome to share with me if you choose.' 'Where is 
your room?' he asked. 'Upstairs,' said I, pointing to 
the stairs leading from the store to my room. With- 
out saying a word he took his saddle-bags on his 
arm, went upstairs, set them down on the floor, 
came down again, and with a face beaming with 
pleasure and smiles, exclaimed: 'Well, Speed, I'm 
moved.'" 

He was now to have the opportunity for which he 
had long looked and labored, and his friends looked 
forward with interest and anxiety to the tests and 
trials through which he must pass in the clash and 
conflict of legislative hall and judicial forum. 

There is no other place known among men where 
the measure and merit of mind is so accurately ascer- 
tained as at the trial table before judge or jiu-y, 
where one or more men of presumably equal ability 
are engaged upon either side for the express purpose 
of luring into pitfalls, exposing the weakness and fal- 
lacy of argument, overthrowing a false premise of fact 
or law, and by direct and flank attack discounting 
and defeating a ruhng and judgment. 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 87 

What was to be the verdict of the profession and of 
the pubHc upon this new hmb of the law? 

We have aheady noted his intellectual preparation, 
which, however, did not cease with his admission to 
the bar, but continued throughout his practice as a 
lawyer and his administration as President. 

But what were to be his ethical and moral standards 
in the practice of the law? 

Was Lincoln still to possess and practise his ''pas- 
sion for justice," as noted in an earlier chapter? Was 
he still to be the ''Honest Abe" as he was known at 
New Salem? 

First, let him speak for himself as to his ideals in 
the practice of the law. 

Upon his death there was found among his effects 
some loose, undated sheets in his own handwriting, 
that he had evidently prepared to use as the basis of 
an address or lecture to lawyers, or law students. 
They should be printed in burning letters and hung 
in every law college and law office: 

"Extemporaneous speaking should be practised and 
cultivated. It is the lawyer's avenue to the public. 
However able and faithful he may be in other respects, 
people are slow to bring him business if he cannot 
make a speech. And yet there is not a more fatal 
error to young lawyers than relying too much on 
speech-making. If any one, upon his rare powers of 
speaking, shall claim an exemption from the drudgery 
of the law, his case is a failure in advance. Discourage 
litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise 
whenever you can. Point out to them how the nomi- 
nal winner is often a real loser — in fees, expenses, and 
waste of time. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has a 
superior opportunity of being a good man. There will 



88 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

still be business enough. Never stir up litigation. A 
worse man can scarcely be found than one who does 
this. Who can be more nearly a fiend than he who 
habitually overhauls the register of deeds in search of 
defects in titles, whereon to stir up strife and put 
money in his pocket? A moral tone ought to be in- 
fused into the profession which should drive such men 
out of it. . . . There is a vague popular behef that 
lawyers are necessarily dishonest. I say vague be- 
cause, when we consider to what extent confidence 
and honors are reposed in and conferred upon lawyers 
by the people, it appears improbable that their im- 
pression of dishonesty is very distinct and vivid. Yet 
the impression is common — almost universal. Let no 
young man choosing the law for a calling for a moment 
yield to the popular behef. Resolve to be honest at 
all events; and if, in your own judgment, you cannot 
be an honest lawyer, resolve to be honest without 
being a lawyer. Choose some other occupation rather 
than one in the choosing of which you do, in advance, 
consent to be a knave." 

Conceive, if you can, this code of ethics carried out 
in every court-room, not merely to the letter, but to 
the spirit, by every counsellor at law. What a change 
would be \vrought in the administration of justice in 
the forty-eight commonwealths of our country ! 

It is regrettable to-day that so many men have one 
code for their personal life, another code for theu- pro- 
fessional Hfe, and perchance yet another for their busi- 
ness life. 

Lincoln had but one code, the code of justice, the 
code of the Golden Rule, the code of conscience. 

Herndon speaks of Lincoln's early practice as 
Stuart's partner as follows: 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 89 

''Stephen T. Logan was judge of the Circuit court, 
and Stephen A. Douglas was prosecuting attorney. 
Among the attorneys we find many promising spirits. 
Edward D. Baker, John T. Stuart, Cyrus Walker, 
Samuel H. Treat, Jesse B. Thomas, George Forquer, 
Dan Stone, Ninian W. Edwards, John J. Hardin, Schuy- 
ler Strong, A. T. Bledsoe, and Josiah Lamborn — a 
galaxy of names, each destined to shed more or less 
lustre on the history of the State. While I am inclined 
to believe that Lincoln did not, after entering Stuart's 
office, do as much deep and assiduous stud3dng as 
people generally credit him with, yet I am confident 
he absorbed not a httle learning by contact with the 
great minds who thronged about the courts and State 
Capitol. The books of Stuart and Lincoln, during 
1837, show a practice more extensive than lucrative, 
for while they received a number of fees, only two or 
three of them reached fifty dollars; and one of these 
has a credit of: 'Coat to Stuart, $15.00,' showing that 
they were compelled, now and then, even to 'trade 
out' their earnings. The htigation was as limited in 
importance as in extent. There were no great corpora- 
tions, as in this progressive day, retaining for counsel 
the brains of the bar in every county seat, but the 
greatest as well as the least had to join the general 
scramble for practice." 

Lincoln was then twenty-nine years of age and was 
still a member of the State Legislature. His practice 
was naturally limited to the usual pioneer litigation, 
such as assaults, trespass on real estate, daily contracts 
between the neighbors, accounts, notes, and the like. 
His spare time he devoted to further study of the law, 
pubhc addresses, and to faithful and regular attendance 
upon "The Young Men's Lyceum." 



90 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Lincoln's partnership with Stuart was compara- 
tively brief, only about four years, from 1837 to 184L 
Much of this time Stuart was actively engaged in polit- 
ical campaigns or in his congressional sittings at Wash- 
ington. Hence he was able to give but Httle attention 
to their legal practice at Springfield. Necessarily this 
fell on Lincoln's shoulders. The routine and details 
of his early office work thus forced upon him were 
doubtless of great value in training and discipline as 
well as practical experience. 

Litigation in that early day was not as important, 
when measured by the amount involved, or the com- 
plexity of the legal problems as it was in later years, and 
yet we find many very important cases, so far as prin- 
ciple was concerned, intrusted to the new firm. Dur- 
ing these four short years at least a half a dozen of the 
firm's cases were taken to the Supreme Court, and Lin- 
coln appeared in the argument of three or four of them. 

But the biggest lawyer in Springfield had his eye 
upon the rising young barrister. It was none other 
than the leader of the Springfield bar, who could no 
doubt have had his choice of any lawyer in Springfield 
for a junior partner. 

As Stuart, with his legal and political standing in 
that community, had paid Lincoln a very high comph- 
ment by inviting him to be his junior partner in 1837, 
so now, in 1841, Lincoln received a much higher com- 
pliment by being invited to become the junior partner 
of Judge Stephen F. Logan. 

Logan had then the reputation of being the best 
''Nisi Prius lawyer in the State." 

Herndon, who knew him personally and intimately, 
spoke of him as follows: 

"Judge Logan was a very orderly but somewhat 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 91 

technical lawyer. ... He was assiduous in study 
and tireless in search of legal principles. He was in- 
dustrious and very thrifty, delighted to make and 
save money, and died a rich man. . . . Lincoln was 
five years younger, and yet his mind and make-up so 
impressed Logan that he was invited into the partner- 
ship with him. Logan's example had a good effect 
on Lincoln, and it stimulated him to unusual endeavors. 
For the first time he realized the effectiveness of order 
and method in work, but his old habits eventually 
overcame him. . . . Logan was scrupulously exact, 
and used extraordinary care in the preparation of 
papers. His words were well chosen, and his style of 
composition was stately and formal." 

This partnership between Logan and Lincoln lasted 
about two years. They were both candidates for Con- 
gress at the same time, and the presumption is, with 
more or less evidence to support it, that their rivalry 
brought some bitterness between them. At all events, 
it was at this time, in 1843, that Lincoln retired from 
the firm, and invited William H. Herndon, who was 
just beginning the practice of law, to become his junior 
partner. 

Herndon himself says: 

"I was young in the practice and was painfully 
aware of my want of abiUty and experience; but when 
he remarked in his earnest, honest way, 'Billy, I can 
trust you, if you can trust me,' I felt reUeved, and 
accepted the generous proposal. It has always been a 
matter of pride with me that during our long partner- 
ship, continuing on until it was dissolved by the bullet 
of the assassin Booth, we never had any personal con- 
troversy or disagreement. I never stood in his way 
for political honors or office, and I beheve we under- 



92 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

stood each other perfectly. In after years, when he 
became more prominent, and our practice grew to 
respectable proportions, other ambitious practitioners 
undertook to supplant me in the partnership. One 
of the latter, more zealous than wise, charged that I 
was in a certain way weakening the influence of the 
firm. I am flattered to know that Lincoln turned on 
this last named individual with the retort ' I know my 
own business, I reckon. I know Billy Herndon better 
than anybody, and even if what you say of him is true 
I intend to stick by him.' " 

While Lincoln was a partner of Logan's, Herndon 
relates the following incident: 

''I have before me a letter written by Lincoln at 
this time to the proprietors of a wholesale store in 
Louisville, for whom suit had been brought, in which, 
after notifying the latter of the sale of certain real 
estate in satisfaction of their judgment, he adds: 'As 
to the real estate we cannot attend to it. We are not 
real estate agents, we are lawyers. We recommend 
that you give the charge of it to Mr. Isaac S. Britton, 
a trustworthy man, and one whom the Lord made 
on purpose for such business.' 

Mr. Herndon comments: 

"He gravely signs the firm name, Logan and Lin- 
coln, to this unlawyerhke letter and sends it on its 
way. Logan never would have written such a letter." 

Whether Logan ''would have written such a letter" 
or not we do not know, neither need we care. Lincoln 
wrote it because he was true then, as he was true al- 
ways, to his convictions as to what was and what was 
not a lawyer's business, and what he did in this case 
squares exactly with his sense of professional duty and 
honor and represents his own practical distinction of 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 93 

what was ''law" business and what was "real estate" 
business. 

Lincoln was a lawyer, first, last and all the time, 
and be it said in his honor that he never lowered the 
professional standards in his twenty-four years of 
practice. 

He was not a "money-getter," neither was he any- 
body's "hired man." I think the public will most 
respectfully differ from Mr. Herndon in saying that 
this was an " unlawyerlike letter." This illustrates 
the difference between the point of view of Lincoln 
and the point of view of Herndon. 

The prerogatives of the senior partner in a law firm 
seem to have been superior in that early day to what 
they are now. 

Mr. Lincoln upon his retirement from the firm of 
Logan and Lincoln in 1843 seemed desirous of being 
the senior partner in a new firm, and it was really from 
the year 1843 forward that he developed and became 
distinguished as a great lawyer who won verdicts and 
judgments. 

But his early campaigns for Congress upon his own 
account, as well as his campaigns for the Whig tickets 
upon the party's account consumed much of his time 
in his earlier years. His election to Congress in 1846 
suspended for the time being his activities in the law. 

At all events, what he did prior to that time was so 
largely preparatory to his future contests and triumphs 
that it deserves no further discussion here. The really 
great lawyer will appear upon his return to Springfield 
in 1849, and from thenceforward to his election as 
President. 



CHAPTER VIII 

LINCOLN THE LAWYER 

(continued) 

Lincoln had just passed the fortieth mile-stone 
when, at the end of his one term in Congress, he re- 
turned from Washington to resume the practice of the 
law. 

As his contact with the leading men of Springfield 
had stimulated him to a deeper and broader study 
of the law in his earlier days, so now the big, brainy 
men of Washington and the East whom he had met 
during these last two years had given him a new 
stimulus for further education and excellence in the 
law. 

As never before he proceeded at once ''to stir the 
gifts of God within him" in wider, deeper study of the 
law, the sciences, and history. 

Herndon relates a marked change in Lincoln's pur- 
suit of the law: 

''I could notice a difference in Lincoln's movement 
as a lawyer from this time forward. He had begun to 
realize a certain lack of discipline — a want of mental 
training and method. Ten years had wrought some 
change in the law, and more in the lawyers, of Illinois. 
The conviction had settled in the minds of the people 
that the pyrotechnics of court-room and stump oratory 
did not necessarily imply extensive or profound ability 
in the lawyer who resorted to it. The courts were be- 
coming graver and more learned, and the lawyer was 

94 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 95 

learning as a preliminary and indispensable condition 
to success that he must be a close reasoner, besides 
having at command a broad knowledge of the princi- 
ples on which the statutory law is constructed. . . . 
And now he began to make up for time lost in pohtics 
by studying the law in earnest. No man had greater 
power of application than he. Once fixing his mind 
on any subject, nothing could interfere with or disturb 
him. Frequently I would go out on the circuit with 
him. We, usually, at the httle country inns occupied 
the same bed. In most cases the beds were too short 
for him, and his feet would hang over the foot-board, 
thus exposing a hmited expanse of shin bone. Placing 
a candle on a chair at the head of the bed, he would 
read and study for hours. I have known him to study 
in this position till two o'clock in the morning. Mean- 
while I and others who chanced to occupy the same 
room would be safely and soundly asleep." 

Holland, in his biography, at page 124, notes the same 
change in habits of study and research : 

"On returning to his home, Mr. Lincoln entered 
upon the duties of his profession, and devoted himself 
to them through a series of years, less disturbed by 
diversions into State and national politics than he had 
been during any previous period of his business Ufe. . . . 

''Mr. Lincoln's lack of early advantages and the 
limited character of his education were constant sub- 
jects of regret with him. His intercourse with mem- 
bers of Congress and with the cultivated society of 
Washington had, without doubt, made him feel his 
deficiencies more keenly than ever before. . . . 

' ' It was at this period that he undertook to improve 
himself somewhat by attention to mathematics, and 
actually mastered the first six books of Euclid." 



96 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Herndon confirms this fact as to Euclid and further 
relates that his study of Euclid was chiefly done upon 
the circuit while Lincoln's fellow lawyers were com- 
fortably asleep. 

Touching this study, Lincoln once said: 

"In the course of my reading I constantly came 
upon the word 'demonstrate' — I thought at first that 
I understood its meaning, but soon became satisfied 
that I did not. I consulted Webster's Dictionary. 
That told of certain proof, 'proof beyond the probabil- 
ity of doubt'; but I could form no sort of idea what 
sort of proof that was. 

''I consulted all the dictionaries and books of refer- 
ence I could find, but with no better results. You 
might as well have defined blue to a blind man. At 
last I said, 'Lincoln, you can never make a lawyer if 
you do not understand what demonstrate means.' I 
studied EucUd until I could give any proposition in 
the first six books at sight. I then found out what 
demonstrate meant." 

What a splendid lesson here, not only for the student 
and the lawyer, but also for every man that has to do 
with the study of any science where logic is a factor. 
To the jury it was a case of "demonstration," to the 
judge it was a case of "demonstration," to the public 
in a political argument it was likewise a case of "dem- 
onstration," and afterward when he became President 
of the United States his one great purpose was to 
"demonstrate" the wisdom and justice of his policy — 
the Union. 

But we are now concerned with him as a laAvyer. 
You will remember in the preceding chapter his views 
on legal ethics. Bear in mind that Lincoln's words 
there quoted were not 'glittering generahties.' They 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 97 

were not mere theories or abstractions. They were 
the root and branch taken from his practice. In short, 
he put his ideals into his cases. 

Lincohi realized reverently that the lawyer was &st 
"an officer of the court" in the administration of jus- 
tice and as such the attorney or agent of the public 
to do justice, before he became an attorney or agent 
of some client to win his cause. 

His great ability in the conduct of cases became so 
familiar to the people of Illinois that no doubt he was 
often sought for by prospective clients to take causes 
that were unconscionable. At all events, before Lin- 
coln would accept a retainer every cause had to be 
first tried out in the 'court of conscience.' This was 
God's court; it was Lincoln's court, and a favorable 
judgment had to be given here first before he proceeded 
into man's coiu-t with any cause either for plaintiff or 
defendant. 

No case better illustrates this conscientious convic- 
tion of Lincoln than the following incident. A client 
in Lincoln's office was talking very earnestly and in low 
tone to Lincoln about a case in which he desired to 
employ him. One person in the office overheard the 
conversation and related Mr. Lincoln's reply, as fol- 
lows, in a letter addressed to Mr. Herndon: 

"Yes," he said, "we can doubtless gain your case 
for you; we can set a whole neighborhood at logger- 
heads; we can distress a widowed mother and her six 
fatherless children, and thereby get for you six hundred 
dollars to which you seem to have a legal claim, but 
which rightfully belongs, it appears to me, as much to 
the woman and her children as it does to you. You 
must remember that some things legally right are not 
morally right. We shall not take your case, but will 



98 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

give you a little advice for which we mil charge you 
nothing. You seem to be a sprightly, energetic man; 
w^e would advise you to try your hand at making six 
hundred dollars in some other way." 

Many instances of this character might be cited. 
Indeed, after he got into the midst of a case, if he found 
out that his cHent had misrepresented things to him, 
had hed to him about the facts of the case, and it turned 
out during the progress of the trial that the judgment 
ought to be against his chent, he not unfrequently 
would say so du-ectly to the court. In one noted in- 
stance he abandoned the case. 

Curtis in his biography quotes Leonard Swett, the 
great lawyer of Chicago, and the great personal and 
pohtical friend of Lincoln, as follows: 

''Once he (Lincoln) was prosecuting a civil suit, in 
the course of which evidence was introduced showing 
that his client was attempting a fraud. Lincoln rose 
and went to his hotel in deep disgust. The judge sent 
for him; he refused to come. 'Tell the judge, ' he said, 
'my hands are dirty; I came over to wash them.'" 

Lincoln quit the case. His conduct mil be a shock 
to some modern law^^ers. But this was Lincoln's char- 
acteristic way of deaUng mth frauds and shams. 

Frequently in the trial of a cause, if he had good 
reason to beheve that his client was wrong, or if it was 
a criminal case that his client was guilty, he seemed to 
lose heart because he had lost the approval of his con- 
science, and left his associate to conduct the cause. 

In one noted instance, where there was a large 
amount involved, he turned to his associate counsel 
and said: 

"Our chent is wrong. I can't proceed further with 
the case. You will have to conduct it alone." 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 99 

Associate counsel did conduct it alone and won the 
case. He got a fee of nine hundred dollars. He 
offered to share it with Lincoln, but not a cent would 
he take. Lincoln believed it was "tainted money." 
His conscience could not approve of it. 

One time, when he was engaged with Judge Parks in 
the defense of a prisoner charged with larceny, he 
tiu*ned to Parks and said: 

''If you can say anything for the man, do it, I can't; 
if I attempt it, the jury will see I think he is guilty, and 
convict him." 

Lincoln was once engaged in the defense of a prisoner 
who was charged with aggravated assault and battery. 
He was persuaded that the prosecuting witness had 
greatly exaggerated his account of the assault, and 
when the prosecuting attorney turned the witness 
over to Lincoln for cross-examination he merely asked 
him one question: 

"Well, my friend, what ground did you and my 
client here fight over?" 

The witness answered: 

"About six acres." 

"Well," said Mr. Lincoln, "don't you think this 
is an almighty small crop of fight to gather from such 
a big piece of ground?" 

The answer was such as to laugh the whole case 
out of court. 

One quality about Lincoln that his opposing counsel 
always feared, was that he would "ring in" some- 
thing that they could not anticipate. An instance 
of his cleverness in this respect appears in a case in 
which he was opposing his former partner. Judge 
Logan. 

Judge Logan had the closing argument and Lincoln 



100 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

well knew his power and persuasiveness with jurors 
and undertook to caution them against being over- 
persuaded by the judge; that it was for them to look 
carefully to the evidence and the law as given by his 
honor, and not to put entire confidence in what Judge 
Logan might say, however plausible he might be. The 
judge himself was sometimes mistaken and didn't 
know it. As an evidence of Judge Logan's mistaken 
judgment Lincoln called attention to the fact that at 
that very time Judge Logan had made an error in 
putting on his shirt, the plaiting, instead of being in 
the front, was in the back. Lincoln implied that a 
man that didn't know enough to put on his shirt 
right might be mistaken on the facts or the law of a 
given case. 

This pat reference to the judge's shirt absolutely 
unmanned him in his argument to the jury, and Lin- 
coln won the case. 

One of Lincoln's familiar sayings in the practice of 
the law was this: 

''If I can free this case from technicalities and get 
it properly swung to the jury, I will win it." 

As a rule he made the twelve men in the box feel 
that that jury was composed not of twelve but thirteen 
and that Lincoln, not the judge, was the thirteenth 
member. 

He was so manifestly fair, not affectedly so, but 
sincerely so, that this quality of his mind and heart 
were constantly creeping out. He was always "Honest 
Abe." 

Leonard Swett, gives the following account of Lin- 
coln's methods in the trial of a case, whether to judge 
or jury: 

"As he entered the trial where most law^^ers would 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 101 

object he would say he 'reckoned' it would be fair to 
let this in, or that; and sometimes, when his adver- 
sary could not quite prove what Lincoln knew to be 
the truth, he 'reckoned' it would be fair to admit the 
truth to be so-and-so. When he did object to the court, 
and when he heard his objections answered, he would 
often say, 'Well, I reckon I must be wrong.' Now, 
about the time he had practised this three-fourths 
through the case, if his adversary didn't understand 
him, he would wake up in a few minutes learning that 
he had feared the Greeks too late, and find himself 
beaten. He was wise as a serpent in the trial of a cause, 
but I have had too many scares from his blows to certify 
that he was harmless as a dove. When the whole thing 
was unravelled, the adversary would begin to see that 
what he was so blandly giving away was simply what 
he couldn't get and keep. By giving away six points 
and carrying the seventh he carried his case, and the 
whole case hanging on the seventh, he traded away 
everything which would give him the least aid in carry- 
ing that. Any man who took Lincoln for a simple- 
minded man would very soon wake up with his back 
in a ditch." 

As before suggested, Lincoln always held to the idea 
of the ultimate justice of a case. What was right and 
fair under all the facts and circumstances; what was 
the just judgment that the court ought to enter ? Any- 
thing that conflicted with his idea of justice, even 
though it were substantially settled law, Lincoln could 
not help but regard as more or less of a technical rule. 
He tried to induce courts and juries always to apply 
the rules of law in such a way as not to defeat jus- 
tice. 

One of the most difficult cases he had of this char- 



102 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

acter, though involving a comparatively small amount, 
is related by Herndon* as follows: 

*'In the spring term of the Tazewell County Court 
in 1847, which at that time was held in the village of 
Tremont, I was detained as a witness an entire week. 
Lincoln was employed in several suits, and among 
them was one of Case vs. Snow Bros. The Snow Bros., 
as appeared in evidence (who were both minors), had 
purchased from an old Mr. Case what was then called 
a 'prairie team,' consisting of two or three yoke of 
oxen and prairie plow, giving therefor their joint note 
for some two hundred dollars; but when pay-day came 
refused to pay, pleading the minor act. The note was 
placed in Lincoln's hands for collection. The suit was 
called and a jury impanelled. The Snow Bros, did 
not deny the note, but pleaded through their counsel 
that they were minors, and that Mr. Case knew they 
were at the time of the contract and conveyance. All 
this was admitted by Mr. Lincoln, with his peculiar 
phrase, 'Yes, gentlemen, I reckon that's so.' The 
minor act was read and its validity admitted in the 
same manner. The counsel of the defendants were 
permitted without question to state all these things 
to the jury, and to show by the statute that these 
minors could not be held responsible for their con- 
tract. By this time you may well suppose that I began 
to be uneasy. ' What ! ' thought I, ' this good old man, 
who confided in these boys to be wronged in this way, 
and even his counsel, Mr. Lincoln, to submit in silence ! ' 
I looked at the court. Judge Treat, but could read 
nothing in his calm and dignified demeanor. Just 
then, Mr. Lincoln slowly got up, and in his strange, 
half-erect attitude and clear, quiet accent began: 

* Vol. II, page 327. 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 103 

'Gentlemen of the Jury, are you willing to allow these 
boys to begin life with this shame and disgrace attached 
to their character? If you are, I am not. The best 
judge of human character that ever wrote has left 
these immortal words for all of us to ponder: 

" 'Good name in man or woman, dear my lord, 
Is the immediate jewel of their souls: 
Who steals my purse steals trash: 'tis something, nothing; 
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands; 
But he that filches from me my good name 
Robs me of that which not enriches him 
And makes me poor indeed.' 

"Then rising to his full height, and looking upon 
the defendants with the compassion of a brother, his 
long right arm extended toward the opposing counsel, 
he continued: 'Gentlemen of the jury, these poor 
innocent boys would never have attempted this low 
villany had it not been for the advice of these lawyers.' 
Then for a few minutes he showed how even the noble 
science of law may be prostituted. With a scathing 
rebuke to those who thus belittle their profession, he 
concluded: 'And now, gentlciaiui, you have it in your 
power to set these boys right before the world.' He 
pleaded for the young men only; I think he did not 
mention his client's name. Tl e jury, without leaving 
their seats, decided that the '; fendants must pay the 
debt; and the latter, after ! . aring Lincoln, were as 
willing to pay it as the jur; were determined they 
should. I think the entire^ argument lasted not 
above five minutes." 

One of the cases that contributed most to Mr. Lin- 
coln's reputation among the people of IlUnois was 
known as the "Armstrong" "u^e. It will be remem- 



104 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

bered that upon Lincoln's going to New Salem, when 
twenty-two years of age, he soon came in contact with 
the Clary's Grove boys, whose leader was Jack Arm- 
strong. They were the terror of that neighborhood. 
Later, however, they became very intimate friends. 
While Lincoln was not of them in habits, they some- 
how or other felt that he "belonged" at least as their 
idol, and Hannah Armstrong, the wife of Jack, furnished 
Abraham Lincoln many a meal and many a bed when 
he was sorely in need. She learned to love him also 
and Lincoln learned to love her. 

Years passed by and her son. Duff Armstrong, was in- 
dicted for murder. Much as Lincoln disliked defenses 
in criminal cases, he could not deny the pleadings of 
Duff Armstrong's now widowed mother, to whom he 
felt under the greatest obligations. 

The man, Norris, charged as the accomplice of Duff 
Armstrong, had already been convicted, and the evi- 
dence of that case disclosed very much incriminating 
evidence against Hannah Armstrong's son. 

Mr. Lincoln's first effort, as it is of every capable, 
skilled lawj^er, was to get the right kind of jury. The 
twelve men in the box were all comparatively young 
men, as Duff Armstrong was a young man. The ex- 
amination of the State's witnesses was most carefully 
and cautiously conducted. 

He never made the mistake in cross-examination 
that was once made by an overzealous counsel in what 
has become known as the ''ear case." It is not irrele- 
vant here. 

A man was being tried in a far Western State on a 
charge of mayhem. The particular charge was that 
he bit off the prosecuting witness's ear and that in a 
drunken brawl. 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 105 

At the time of the fight the witnesses for the State 
were so drunk that they could scarcely recollect the 
cii'cumstances of the affair, and the prosecutor was 
forced to rely on one sober witness, who was exceed- 
ingly friendly to the defendant, but also, it must be 
said to his credit, he was not unfriendly to the truth. 
After putting a number of questions to the principal 
witness for the State, the answers to which were either 
indifferent or unsatisfactory, sufficient of the friendli- 
ness of the witness for the accused was elicited to 
secure from the court permission to put direct or lead- 
ing questions to the witness. 

"Q. Now, you say, Mr. Jones, that you did not see 
the defendant bite off the ear of the prosecuting wit- 
ness. Brown? 

"A. No, sir. 

"Q. And do you mean to say that you did not see 
him biting at his ear? 

"A, No, sir." 

The prosecutor practically threw up his hands. He 
had failed to make a case, and passed the witness to 
the other side for cross-examination. 

Any skilled and experienced counsel would simply 
have answered: "We have no cross-examination." 
But the turn of events had so taken everybody off his 
feet that counsel for the defendant in his zeal said: 
"Just a question or two." 

"Q. Now, I understand you to say you did not see 
the defendant biting off Mr. Brown's ear? 

"A. No. 

"Q. You did not see him biting at his ear? 

"A. No, sir. 

"Q. You did not see anything that indicated that 
he had bitten off his ear? 



106 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

"A. Well, I would not want to say that. 

"Q. Well, what did you see? 

"A. Well, I saw the defendant spit out an ear." 

Lincoln never made such mistakes in cross-examina- 
tion. He asked the right question at the right time 
and in the right way. He never pushed a witness too 
far, nor ever put himself in a hostile attitude to the 
witness, unless he was sure of his ground, sure that he 
would be able successfully to impeach him later. 

The case had gone well for Mr. Lincoln until the 
star witness for the State was put upon the stand. 
His name was Allen. All eyes were turned to hear 
Allen's story, because he was the only witness that 
claimed to have seen the fatal blow struck at a dis- 
tance of about one hundred and fifty feet from where 
the fatal assault took place. Allen testified that the 
assault took place at about eleven o'clock in the night 
time and that he saw Armstrong strike the deceased, 
Metzker, with a sling-shot. Mr. Lincoln asked him 
as to how he could see that distance at that time of 
night. Allen rephed at once: ''By the light of the 
moon." 

Lincoln was prepared to meet this testimony, and, 
therefore, he gave the witness, Allen, all possible rope 
to repeat and to emphasize the fact of how clearly he 
had seen this blow struck, so that there was no possible 
chance of retracting it or qualifying it. Allen made 
the moon to shine that night like the noonday sun. 
Then Lincoln introduced the almanac of that year, a 
silent witness, but a thoroughly credible one. 

The almanac showed that the moon had just com- 
pleted its first quarter before midnight and that at 
the hour named by this star witness the moon was 
so near its setting that it was impossible for it to have 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 107 

furnished any light by which Allen could have seen 
Armstrong strike the blow. Allen had been entirely 
discredited. The verdict was Lincoln's. 

One or two biographers have endeavored to discredit 
Mr. Lincoln's professional honor in this case by charg- 
ing that he used an old almanac and not the one of 
1857, the year of the murder. 

Again the almanac is its best witness. Numerous 
biographers have answered that charge by showing 
that the original account of the transaction, as re- 
ported by Lincoln, is absolutely correct, that the 
almanac of 1857 did support every claim made by 
Lincoln in behalf of Armstrong. 

But more than that, if such almanac were not now 
available, Lincoln's whole professional career brands 
the other story as a lie, and if it had even been possi- 
ble for him to indulge in such a vicious practice to 
mislead court and jury, it would have excited such 
discussion and opposition in Illinois in that day as to 
have resulted in a deserved disbarment. The bar of 
Illinois in that day was of too high standing to have 
suffered such an imposition upon court and jury to 
have gone either undiscovered or unpunished. 

Considerable discussion has arisen by Lincoln's vari- 
ous biographers touching the statement made as to 
Lincoln's methods in court by one Judge Treat, who 
was at one time a member of the Supreme Court of 
Ilhnois. 

One of Lincoln's biographers gives Judge Treat as 
authority for the following brief argument of Lincoln 
before the Supreme Court of Illinois: 

"This is the first case I [Lincolnl ever have had in 
this court, and I, therefore, examined it with great 
care. As the court will perceive by looking at the 



108 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

abstract of the record, the only question in the case is 
one of authority. I have not been able to find any 
authority to sustain my side of the case. But I have 
found several cases directly in point on the other side. 
I will now give these authorities to the court and then 
submit the case." 

Several of Lincoln's biographers deny it and point 
to the fact that at the time Lincoln argued his first 
case in the Supreme Court of Illinois Judge Treat was 
not a member of that court. They say not only that 
Lincoln never used that language, but that it would 
have been highly improper to have done so. 

It matters not whether it occurred at this time or 
some other time; that it frequently did occur is just 
what you would expect from a lawyer like Lincoln. 

But the controversy is not important as to the time 
when it occurred. The fact of the matter is that Lin- 
coln was always so fair, so frank with the court that 
there is nothing in these words in the slightest contra- 
diction to his uniform attitude and conduct in the 
presence of a court of justice. 

To Lincoln there was nothing sacred about a decided 
case, except its weight in reason and justice, and if the 
reason and justice of the case on trial was upon his 
side, Lincoln would plainly and persuasively present 
that side, notwithstanding some court may have de- 
cided otherwise. 

A case of more than usual interest was one in which 
he had been retained to render certain service as an 
attorney-at-law in some taxation suits brought by the 
State of Illinois against the Illinois Central Railroad. 
Upon the completion of that litigation Lincoln ren- 
dered a bill to the railroad company for two thousand 
dollars. The bill was rejected. 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 109 

Some of his biographers have related, with no show 
of probabihty, however, that the rejection was made 
by the chief engineer of that company, one George 
B. McClellan. The facts are all against this conten- 
tion. The bill, however, was rejected. Lincoln felt 
much hurt, and conferred with his associates at the 
bar. They rather severely criticised Lincoln, not be- 
cause the bill was too large, but because it was too 
little. They urged that the bill should be presented 
for five thousand dollars, which was done. Again the 
bill was rejected, suit was brought and judgment finally 
taken in favor of Lincoln. Lincoln collected the money 
upon the judgment, brought it to the office, divided 
it without any book entry, carefully wrapped up two 
thousand five hundred dollars, and labelled it ''Hern- 
don's half." 

Some of his biographers have m-ged that the suit 
against the Illinois Central Railroad was entirely 
friendly. Without any facts to support this claim, 
save that Lincoln was subsequently retained by the 
Illinois Central Railroad, the presumption is the other 
way. Men who are willing to pay claims in a sub- 
stantial amount do not ordinarily submit to a suit to 
collect them. 

No doubt Lincoln's great ability in the case was, 
in itself, sufficient to urge the advisability upon some 
of the officers of the railroad company for future 
employment, wholly independent of the issue in the 
five-thousand-dollar case. 

Another case that attracted a great deal of interest, 
and has been given much space in his various biogra- 
phies was the ''Manny" or "McCormick" case, as it 
is sometimes known. 

So many different accounts have been given con- 



no THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

cerning this case that they are irreconcilable, save in 
one particular, and that is that Mr. Lincoln was very 
rudely treated by associate counsel in the case. 

The case was one involving a patent brought by 
the McCormick Company against one Manny on the 
charge of infringement of patents in the United States 
Court at Cincinnati, and was heard there during the 
fall term of 1855. 

For plaintiff there appeared a distinguished lawyer 
from Baltimore, Reverdy Johnson, and a Mr. Dicker- 
son, from Philadelphia, an expert patent lawyer. 

Mr. George Harding was the expert patent lawyer 
from Philadelphia for the defendant, and Lincoln had 
been retained by one of the defendants, Mr. Emerson, 
of Rockford, Illinois, to match as a lawyer of general 
and successful practice in the trial of cases the dis- 
tinguished and skilled Johnson from Baltimore. 

When Lincoln arrived at Cincinnati he learned that 
other parties interested with the defendant had also 
employed Mr. Edwin M. Stanton, formerly of Steuben- 
ville, Ohio, but now of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, a 
college-bred man, and a lawyer of large abiUty and 
successful experience. 

Up to the time of their meeting at Cincinnati Mr. 
Stanton did not know of Mr. Lincoln having been 
retained in behalf of the defendant, and Lincoln evi- 
dently did not know that Mr. Stanton had been re- 
tained likewise in behalf of the defendant. 

Upon meeting Lincoln, it is said that Stanton in- 
quu-ed: ''Where did this long-legged, long-armed 
person come from and who is it?" Other things were 
said no doubt, some of them not fit for public record. 

At all events, Lincoln did not participate in the 
trial. He did not assist in the examination of the wit- 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 111 

nesses. He did not make any argument to the court, 
nor file any brief in the case, though he had been re- 
tained by one of the defendants for that purpose. 

Harding made an argument as an expert patent 
lawyer, which was supplemented by a very able argu- 
ment by Stanton. Lincoln, it is said, after being 
crowded out of the case, tendered Harding and Stanton 
a brief that he had prepared, which they cordially 
consigned to the waste-basket without examining it. 

As a further evidence of their lack of cordiahty and 
general agreeableness toward Lincoln, it should be 
said with entire truth that Judge McLean gave a httle 
dinner, during the early part of the trial, in which all 
the counsel in the case were present as honored guests. 
Lincoln, however, was not present, and neither was he 
invited to be present. 

Lincoln remained in Cincinnati a few days, and 
then went home to Springfield much depressed and 
deeply grieved over the treatment accorded him by 
counsel in that case. Stanton had brutally kicked 
him out in a manner that could not be misunderstood 
by Lincoln. Stanton was as big in mind as he was 
bad in manners, and his conduct toward Lincoln and 
the public then and later, as we shall see, furnish abun- 
dant evidence of his dominating and haughty char- 
acteristics. 

Lincoln had one marked peculiarity that deserves 
mention here, and that is, that he rarely detailed his 
personal or professional grievances to his friends, and 
no fact is better established than that he never had 
any intimates. He never confided the secrets, espe- 
cially the unpleasant and disagreeable secrets of his 
personal, professional, or political life to any other 
living soul. So that we have little account of what 



112 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Lincoln himself said or thought of Stanton's treat- 
ment of him in this case at Cincinnati. 

Herndon says: 

''Lincoln felt that Stanton had not only been very 
discom-teous to him, but had purposely ignored him 
in the case and that he had received rather rude, if not 
unkind, treatment from all hands. Stanton in his 
brusque and abrupt way, it is said, described him as 
'a long, lank creature from Illinois, wearing a dirty 
hnen duster for a coat, on the back of which the per- 
spiration had splotched wide stains that resembled a 
map of the continent.' " 

We may feel sure from what we know of Lin- 
coln personally that if he (Lincoln) felt that Stanton 
had been ''discourteous," "had purposely ignored him," 
"had been rude" that Stanton, as a matter of fact, 
had been doubly so. 

When we lawyers reaUze the courtesy due from one 
counsel to another, no matter what our personal feel- 
ing may be, Stanton's treatment of Lincoln seems not 
only outrageous, but almost unpardonable. 

Herndon himself further says that Lincoln once 
said to him that he had been "roughly handled by 
that man Stanton," and that he had overheard Stanton 
saying: "Where did that long-armed creature come 
from and what can he expect to do in this case?" 

Stanton's relations to Lincoln in this case are given 
at length because Lincoln and Stanton will have much 
to do with each other in another chapter. 



CHAPTER IX 

LINCOLN THE LAWYER 

(continued) 

While a partner of Herndon in 1858, Lincoln made 
the following notes for an argument to the court: 

"Legislation and adjudication must follow and con- 
form to the progress of society. 

"The progress of society now begins to produce 
cases of the transfer for debts of the entire property 
of railroad corporations; and to enable transferees to 
use and enjoy the transferred property legislation and 
adjudication begin to be necessary. 

"Shall this class of legislation just now beginning 
with us be general or special? 

"Section Ten of our Constitution requires that it 
should be general, if possible. (Read the Section.) 

"Special legislation always trenches upon the judi- 
cial department; and in so far violates Section Two of 
the Constitution. (Read it.) 

"Just reasoning — policy — is in favor of general legis- 
lation — else the legislature will be loaded down with 
the investigation of small cases — a work which the 
courts ought to perform, and can perform much more 
perfectly. How can the Legislature rightly decide the 
facts between P. & H. and S. C. & Co. ? 

"It is said that under a general law, whenever a 
R. R. Co. gets tired of its debts, it may transfer fraudu- 
lently to get rid of them. So they may — so may indi- 
viduals; and which — the Legislature or the courts — is 
best suited to try the question of fraud in either case? 

113 



114 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

"It is said, if a purchaser have acquired legal rights, 
let him not be robbed of them, but if he needs legisla- 
tion let him submit to just terms to obtain it. 

''Let him, say we, have general law in advance 
(guarded in every possible way against fraud), so that, 
when he acquires a legal right, he will have no occasion 
to wait for additional legislation; and if he has prac- 
tised fraud let the courts so decide." 

The student will note the orderly arrangement of 
this argument, the logical steps in which the notes 
are made, how the legal and the ethical argument is 
presented together so that each re-enforces the other. 

One of the noted cases that Lincoln had for trial 
was known as the Wright case. A widow had been 
defrauded of a large part of her pension by a pen- 
sion agent who had secured for her an allowance 
of $800 from the government, for which he had 
charged her the outrageous fee of $400. The widow 
was old, crippled, and needy. She sought Lincoln 
to retain him to recover the $400, less a reasonable 
fee. 

Lincoln's notes for the argument of this case are as 
follows : 

"No contract. — Not professional services. — Unrea- 
sonable charge. — Money retained by Deft not given 
by Pl'ff. — Revolutionary War. — Describe Valley Forge 
privations. — Ice. — Soldier's bleeding feet. — Pl'ff's hus- 
band. — Soldier leaving home for army. — Skin Deft. — 
Close." 

Herndon's account of it is very interesting, includ- 
ing a portion of Lincoln's argument. He says: 

"As he reached that point in his speech wherein he 
narrated the hardened action of the defendant in 
fleecing the old woman of her pension his eyes flashed, 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 115 

and throwing aside his handkerchief, which he held in 
his right hand, he fairly launched into him. His 
speech for the next five or ten minutes justified the 
declaration of Davis, that he was 'hurtful in denun- 
ciation and merciless in castigation.' There was no 
rule of court to restrain him in his argument, and I 
never, either on the stump or on other occasions in 
court, saw him so wrought up. Before he closed, he 
drew an ideal picture of the plaintiff's husband, the 
deceased soldier, parting with his wife at the threshold 
of their home, and kissing their httle babe in the 
cradle, as he started for the war. 'Time rolls by,' he 
said in conclusion; 'the heroes of '76 have passed away 
and are encamped on the other shore. The soldier 
has gone to rest, and now, crippled, blinded, and 
broken, his widow comes to you and to me, gentlemen 
of the jury, to right her wrongs. She was not always 
thus. She was once a beautiful young woman. Her 
step was as elastic, her face as fair, and her voice as 
sweet as any that rang in the mountains of old Virginia. 
But now she is poor and defenceless. Out here on the 
prairies of Ilhnois, many hundreds of miles away from 
the scenes of her childhood, she appeals to us, who 
enjoy the privileges achieved for us by the patriots of 
the Revolution, for our sympathetic aid and manly 
protection. All I ask is, shall we befriend her?' The 
speech made the desired impression on the jury. Half 
of them were in tears, while the defendant sat in the 
court room, drawn up and writhing under the fire of 
Lincoln's fierce invective. . . . When the judgment 
was paid we remitted the proceeds to her and made no 
charge for our services." 

When a man is mad, he is mad clear through, and 
that was true of Lincoln in this case. He hated a 



116 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

sham and a counterfeit, whether it be in a person or 
a policy. 

But when the widow was in the wrong he was equally 
frank to tell her so and refuse her case. 

An instance is related wherein Lincoln was once 
asked to examine the title to a piece of valuable 
land owned by a widow. Lincoln himself surveyed 
the land and carefully examined its title, and the hens 
thereon. After taking his survey and the records into 
full consideration, together with the facts that the 
widow was able to give him, he told her frankly that 
she ought to pay a certain sum to the heirs of a former 
grantor. To this the widow entered strenuous objec- 
tion. Lincoln, however, told her that unless she did 
so he would drop the case. Finally, with great reluc- 
tance, she consented, paid the amount, and Lincoln 
himself distributed it to the various heirs. 

After all, it appears that each case had to stand upon 
its own bottom. It had to square with justice, and, 
unless his conscience approved, he refused the retainer. 

Another instance well illustrates the ethics of Lin- 
coln in the practice of the law, and as well the differ- 
ence between him and Herndon in their ethical stand- 
ards. A suit had been brought against one of their 
chents involving a large sum of money. For some 
reason or other Lincoln and Herndon were not ready 
for trial. Herndon, having charge of the case, did all 
that he could to postpone the trial. He says, concern- 
ing the case:* 

''We dared not make an affidavit for continuance, 
founded on facts, because no such pertinent and mate- 
rial facts as the law contemplated existed. Our case 
for the time seemed hopeless. One morning, however, I 

* Vol. I, page 326. 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 117 

accidentally overheard a remark from Stuart indicating 
his fear lest a certain fact should happen to come into 
our possession. I felt some relief, and at once drew 
up a fictitious plea, averring as best I could the sub- 
stance of the doubts I knew existed in Stuart's mind. 
The plea was as skilfully drawn as I knew how, and 
was framed as if we had the evidence to sustain it. 
The whole thing was a sham, but so constructed as to 
work the desired continuance, because I knew that 
Stuart and Edwards believed the facts were as I 
pleaded them. This was done in the absence and 
wdthout the knowledge of Lincoln. The plea could 
not be demurred to, and the opposing counsel dared 
not take the issue on it. It perplexed them sorely. 
At length, before further steps were taken, Lincoln 
came into court. He looked carefully over all the 
papers in the case, as was his custom, and seeing my 
ingenious subterfuge asked, 'Is this seventh plea a 
good one?' Proud of the exhibition of my skill I 
answered that it was. 'But,' he inquired, incredu- 
lously, 'is it founded on fact?' I was obliged to re- 
spond in the negative, at the same time following up 
my answer with an explanation of what I had over- 
heard Stuart intimate, and of how these alleged facts 
could be called facts if a certain construction were put 
upon them. I insisted that our position was justifiable, 
and that our client must have time or be ruined. I 
could see at once it failed to strike Lincoln as just 
right. He scratched his head thoughtfully and asked, 
'Hadn't we better withdraw that plea? You know 
it's a sham, and a sham is very often but another name 
for a lie. Don't let it go on record. The cursed thing 
may come staring us in the face long after this suit has 
been forgotten.' The plea was withdrawn. By some 



118 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

agency — not our own — the case was continued and our 
client's interests were saved." 

Herndon entirely misconceives Mr. Lincoln's reason 
for having the sham plea withdrawn, on "account of 
the record." It was not on "account of the record," 
but on account of the right of the thing. He was so 
keen for justice that he could not knowingly do any- 
thing unjust; neither would he permit it to be done. 

I may have devoted more time than some would 
think necessary to relating particular incidents and 
instances of his practice, but I am persuaded that Lin- 
coln was nature's great jurist, and, therefore, his ideas, 
as well as ideals of justice, as they were expressed and 
experienced in his every-day life, as the lawyer, are 
of vital interest to any student of Lincoln, and should 
be of special interest to lawyers who believe in a higher 
and nobler code of ethics for the profession. 

Indeed, it is evidence of the fact that he was a great 
natural jurist, that whenever the judge on the circuit 
was absent for any reason, the one lawyer, above all 
others, that was unanimously chosen to sit instead of 
the absent judge and proceed with the trial of causes 
that day assigned, was Lincoln. 

Some of his rules of practice are worthy of further 
note, not only as a matter of interest in illustrating 
his character, but also of emulation in the profession. 

"In law it is good policy never to plead what you 
need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you 
cannot." 

Once he said to Herndon : 

"Billy, don't shoot too high — aim lower and the 
common people will understand you. They are the 
ones you want to reach — at least they are the ones 
you ought to reach. The educated and refined people 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 119 

will understand you anjrway. If you aim too high 
your ideas will go over the heads of the masses and 
only hit those who need no hitting." 

Herndon overstates nothing in Lincoln's favor when 
he says: 

"Lincoln could look a long distance ahead and cal- 
culate the triumph of right. With him justice and 
truth were paramount. If to him a thing seemed un- 
true he could not in his nature simulate truth. His 
retention by a man to defend a lawsuit did not prevent 
him from throwing it up in its most critical stage if 
he believed he was espousing an unjust cause. This 
extreme conscientiousness and disregard of the alleged 
sacredness of the professional cloak robbed him of 
much so-called success at the bar." 

A higher tribute no man can pay another. 

The query comes to many of us, can a man with 
such high standards of personal integrity and profes- 
sional honor be successful in the practice of the law? 
If large fees are the index of professional success, if 
large corporation retainers are the index of profes- 
sional success, if fifty or one hundred thousand dollars 
annual income be the index of professional success, 
then Abraham Lincoln was not a successful lawyer. 

His annual fees rarely aggregated more than two 
or three thousand dollars, and he was by all stand- 
ards counted a poor man. He says something on 
this subject himself when in New York to deliver the 
Cooper Union speech. The day before he met an old 
friend from Springfield who had recently come to New 
York and engaged in business. The talk on Broadway 
was substantially as follows. Said Mr. Lincoln: 

''How have you been getting along since leaving 
the West?" 



120 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

"I have made $100,000 and lost all," was the reply. 

Then his friend said: 

''How is it with you, Mr. Lincoln?" 

''Oh, very well," said he, "I have the cottage at 
Springfield and about $8,000 in money. If they make 
me Vice President with Seward, as some say they will, 
I hope I shall be able to increase it to $20,000; and 
that is as much as any man ought to want." 

If, however, painstaking, efficient, successful prac- 
tice for a large clientage of every kind and nature in 
the nisi prius courts, as well as in the Supreme Court 
of his State, and also a number of cases in the Federal 
Courts, are any exponent of a lawyer's success at the 
bar, then Abraham Lincoln must be acknowledged 
as one of the first and biggest lawyers of Illinois. 

From the time he returned from his service in Con- 
gress, in 1849, until his nomination for the presidency, 
there is no doubting that he had more cases during 
those eleven years in the Supreme Court of Illinois 
than any other lawyer in the State. 

From the commencement of his practice to its close, 
the record shows that he had more than one hundred 
and seventy-five cases in the Supreme Court of II- 
Hnois, a record surpassed by few men, if any, in that 
State or any other in that day. 

What his fellow lawyers said of him after his death 
will illustrate many sides of his personal and profes- 
sional character. 

Shortly after Lincoln's death in 1865, the Supreme 
Court of Illinois heard obituary addresses in his honor. 
On that occasion. Judge Caton said in presenting the 
resolutions : 

"He (Mr. Lincoln) understood the relations of 
things, and hence his deductions were rarely wrong, 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 121 

from any given state of facts. So he applied the prin- 
ciples of law to the transactions of men with great clear- 
ness and precision. He was a close reasoner. He 
reasoned by analogy, and enforced his views by apt 
illustration. His mode of speaking was generally of 
a plain and unimpassioned character, and yet he was 
the author of some of the most beautiful and eloquent 
passages in our language, which, if collected, would 
form a valuable contribution to American literature. 
The most punctilious honor ever marked his profes- 
sional and private life." 

Judge Breese, responding to the resolutions, said: 

"For my single self, I have for a quarter of a cen- 
tury regarded Mr. Lincoln as the finest lawyer I ever 
knew, and of a professional bearing so high-toned and 
honorable as justly, and without derogating from the 
claims of others, entitling him to be presented to the 
profession as a model well worthy of the closest imita- 
tion." 

Judge Thomas Drummond, of Chicago, then a 
member of the Federal Court in the city, upon this 
same occasion said: 

*'I have no hesitation in saying that he was one of 
the ablest lawyers I have ever known. With a voice 
by no means pleasant, and, indeed, when excited, in 
its shrill tones, sometimes almost disagreeable; with- 
out any of the personal graces of the orator; without 
much in the outward man indicating superiority of 
intellect; without great quickness of perception — 
still, his mind was so vigorous, his comprehension so 
exact and clear, and his judgment so sure, that he 
easily mastered the intricacies of his profession, and 
became one of the ablest reasoners and most impres- 
sive speakers at our bar. With a probity of character 



122 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

known of all, with an intuitive insight into the human 
heart, with a clearness of statement which was itself 
an argument, with uncommon power and felicity of 
illustration, — often, it is true, of a plain and homely 
kind, — and with that sincerity and earnestness of 
manner which carried conviction, he was, perhaps, 
one of the most successful jury lawyers we have ever 
had in the state. He always tried a case fairly and 
honestly. He never intentionally misrepresented the 
evidence of a witness or the argument of an opponent. 
He met both squarely, and, if he could not explain the 
one or answer the other, substantially admitted it. He 
never misstated the law according to his own intelligent 
view of it." 

Judge David Davis, then of the Supreme Court of 
the United States, delivered a eulogy on Lincoln as a 
lawyer at Indianapohs, in which he said: 

"In all the elements that constitute the great law- 
yer, he (Mr. Lincoln) had few equals. He was great 
both at Nisi Prius and before an appellate tribunal. 
He seized the strong points of a case, and presented 
them with clearness and great compactness. A vein 
of humor never deserted him, and he was always able 
to chain the attention of court and jury when the 
cause was the most uninteresting, by the appropriate- 
ness of his anecdotes." 

Arnold, one of his biographers, and also a fellow 
lawyer, at Indianapolis, in speaking of both Douglas 
and Lincoln, said: 

"Both were strong jury lawyers. Lincoln was, on 
the whole, the strongest we ever had in Illinois. Both 
were distinguished for their ability in seizing and bring- 
ing out distinctly and clearly the real points in a case. 
Both were happy in the examination of witnesses, but 



LINCOLN THE LAWYER 123 

I think Lincoln was the stronger of the two in cross- 
examination." 

Lincoln lived the lawyer and loved the law, but more 
than all else he lived and loved justice. 

He was the chancellor in the court of conscience be- 
fore he was the counsellor in a court of law. 

Whenever there was conflict in the judgments of 
these two courts with Lincoln, the former was para- 
mount. 



CHAPTER X 

LINCOLN THE LOGICL\N 

"Prove all things. Hold fast to that which is good." — St. Paul. 

"Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing 
else but reason . . . the law which is perfection of reason." — Sir Ed- 
ward Coke. 

Probably he never read John Stuart Mill, Doctor 
Whateley, or Sir WilUam Hamilton, yet in logic he was 
the peer of all of them. But what is logic? says some 
one. Boiled down, it is only the ''science or art of 
exact reasoning" or ''the laws according to which the 
processes of pure thinking should be conducted" or 
"the science of the laws of thought." 

Lincoln was, first, last, and all the time a "thinker." 
In speaking he was merely telling the thought on the 
platform. In writing he was merely telling the thought 
on paper. 

Reason, calm, candid, calculating reason, was the 
gift of God, as Paul characterizes it, which bridged his 
"passion for knowledge" to his "passion for justice." 
It was the gift by which he sought and obtained do- 
minion over his fellow men. 

Herndon, his old partner, who associated with him 
in the law office for nearly a score of years, had ex- 
traordinary opportunity of observing the mental pow- 
ers and operations of Lincoln, and what he has written 
may well command our attention: 

"He had no faith, and no respect for 'say so's,' come 
though they might from tradition or authority. Thus 
everything had to run through the crucible, and be 

124 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 125 

tested by the fires of his analytic mind; and when at 
last he did speak, his utterances rang out with the 
clear and keen ring of gold upon the counters of the 
understanding. He reasoned logically through anal- 
ogy and comparison. All opponents dreaded his origi- 
nality of idea, his condensation, definition, and force 
of expression; and woe be to the man who hugged to 
his bosom a secret error if Lincoln got on the chase of 
it. . . . His conscience, his heart, and all the facul- 
ties and qualities of his mind bowed submissively to 
the despotism of his reason. He hved and acted from 
the standard of reason— that throne of logic, home of 
principle — the realm of Deity in man. It is from this 
point Mr. Lincoln must be viewed. Not only was he 
cautious, patient, and enduring; not only had he con- 
centration and great continuity of thought; but he had 
profound analytical power. His vision was clear, and 
he was emphatically the master of statement. His 
pursuit of the truth, as before mentioned, was indefati- 
gable. He reasoned from well-chosen principles with 
such clearness, force, and directness that the tallest in- 
tellects in the land bowed to him. He was the strong- 
est man I ever saw, looking at him from the elevated 
standpoint of reason and logic. He came down from 
that height with irresistible and crashing force. His 
Cooper Institute and other printed speeches will prove 
this; but his speeches before the courts — especially the 
Supreme Court of Ilhnois — if they had been preserved, 
w^ould demonstrate it still more plainly." * 

This mental sketch is a splendid summary of our 
logician, but it falls short of the methods which Lin- 
coln used in bringing about the triumphs of his rea- 
son. 

* Herndon, vol. II, pp. 304 et seq. 



126 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

If the great problem of our education is to find 
out how to teach and train the mind of our youth, 
how to think, how to reason clearly, correctly, and 
conclusively, then it is vitally important that we 
should study this great ''thinker" and ''reasoner," 
God-made and self-made, certainly not school-made, 
for the purpose of ascertaining and emulating the ways 
and means he employed in the study of any subject, and 
how he proceeded to demonstrate the relation of that 
subject to some great legal principle or cause, or its 
natural and necessary relation to the betterment and 
happiness of our humanity. 

Early in life he exhibited great power of mental con- 
centration. He would centrahze all his mental forces 
upon the subject under investigation to the exclusion 
of everything and everybody else. 

Herndon* notes this quality in the following lan- 
guage: 

"From a mental standpoint he was one of the most 
energetic young men in his day. He dwelt altogether 
in the land of thought. . . . His powers of concen- 
tration were intense, and in the ability through analysis 
to strip bare a proposition he was unexcelled. His 
thoughtful and investigating mind dug down after 
ideas, and never stopped till bottom facts were 
reached." 

Herndon further says: f 

"When Lincoln entered the domain of investiga- 
tion he was a severe and persistent thinker, and had 
wonderful endurance; hence he was abstracted, and 
for that reason at times was somewhat unsocial, ret- 
icent, and uncommunicative." 

Lincoln said during the war, in talking about the 

* Vol. I, pages 39-41. t Vol. II, page 133. 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 127 

"Trent Affair," and also in talking about Maximilian 
in Mexico, "one war at a time." So in his study it 
was "one subject at a time." 

Let us not forget here that Lincoln in his early hfe 
was a surveyor. What he learned in a practical way 
in the survey of some given specific lot or land he ap- 
plied when surveying some given or specific fact or 
principle. His paramount "passion for knowledge" 
heretofore discussed moved him to use his mental com- 
pass and chain so that he would "run the courses and 
distances from monument to monument" in survey- 
ing all the facts or the legal principles involved in any 
given case with just the same thoroughness and ex- 
actness as he did when he surveyed the concrete 
land. 

As he himself has said he "bounded it on the north, 
bounded it on the east, bounded it on the south, and 
bounded it on the west." 

He would proceed substantially after this manner; 
Fact A is bounded on the north by causes 1 and 2, on 
the east by associations 3, 4, and 5, on the south by 
consequences 6, 7, and 8, on the west by opposition 
9, 10, and 11. 

This was the method of the surveyor. It was the 
old lesson in geography by virtue of which the student 
fixed the location of a township, a county, a State or 
a country, by giving its geographical boundaries. 

This very simplicity was one of the great secrets of 
his mental strength. 

Each fact was considered in its causal relation with 
other facts. Lincoln not only wanted to know the 
cause of the fact and the consequences from that fact, 
but he went back to the original question itself, the 
question back of all others — is it in fact a "fact"? 



128 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

After he had carefully and comprehensively sur- 
veyed all the facts relating to any given situation, it 
was a Lincoln characteristic, stamping all his methods 
and arguments in court, as well as his public speeches 
and presidential papers, to discriminate between the 
essential and controlling facts and principles of any 
given case or cause, and the unimportant and incon- 
sequential. He was continually separating the wheat 
from the chaff, the ear from the shuck. 

He was Nature's great jurist. Whether the ques- 
tion was one of fact or law, whether it was one of a 
truth or a principle, he presented both sides of the 
cause in every forum, judicial or popular, with such 
evident and considerate fairness that his adversaries 
were often surprised that he had, not infrequently, 
conceded to them some strength that they had not 
even claimed. His concessions, his yieldings, however, 
were not what he conceived to be the vital issues in 
the case. Those he stuck to with a bulldog tenacity. 

Clear thinking is the first essential to correct think- 
ing, and clearness of conception was the first thing 
for which Lincoln labored. To convey that clear con- 
ception to others was his second great purpose; as he 
himself has often said, he sought to put it in language 
plain enough "for any boy I knew to comprehend." 

Next, having reached a conclusion through a course 
of reasoning in his own mind, he proceeds to demon- 
strate the truth and soundness of his position in the 
simplest terms of speech, so as to persuade others to 
his way of thinking and to the support of his cause. 

Constantly he has before him the word ''demon- 
strate," as to which he was quoted in an earher chap- 
ter, but which will bear repetition here in discussing 
his logic. 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 129 

Lincoln soliloquized as follows: 

'' 'Lincoln, you can never make a lawyer, if you 
do not understand what demonstrate means.' I studied 
Euclid until I could give any proposition in the first 
six books at sight. I then found out what 'demon- 
strate' meant," 

In making his demonstration it is strikingly signif- 
icant that his great addresses in law, government, or 
politics were usually bottomed upon some parable or 
proposition from the Bible, some primary legal axiom, 
or political proposition from the Declaration of In- 
dependence. The first was his Magna Charta of morals 
and conduct, the last his Magna Charta of liberty and 
democracy. No better example of this method can 
be found than in the Springfield speech of 1858. 

Here his first proposition, which served as his major 
premise of argument, was a familiar or undisputed 
fact or principle from the Bible to which all men, or 
most men, must agree. 

Not unfrequently he would take this basic fact or 
proposition from some statement or admission of the 
adversary, as he did in the great Cooper Union speech 
in New York City in 1860. 

After having laid down his major premise, he would 
then follow it up with his minor premises with such 
clearness of statement, closeness of reasoning, mar- 
shalling all the evidence, all the facts, as a great mili- 
tary commander does his troops upon the one given 
point of attack, all to prove to the point of probability 
or to the point of moral certainty the truth or wisdom 
of the proposition in question. 

After making his demonstration to the satisfaction 
of the average man, if the proposition were one in- 
volving some human or great public interest, he then 



130 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

followed it with a simple, sincere, straightforward, dedi- 
cation of himself and his honor to that cause. 

Where did he get this order which he habitually 
followed in his discussions on law or government? 
He does not definitely advise us. Neither do any of 
his biographers. 

It is, however, more than passing strange that Lin- 
coln's early acquaintance with, and study of, the 
Declaration of Independence brought him directly 
and intimately in touch with this method of presenta- 
tion and argument. That Declaration of Independence 
is naturally divisible into those same three parts, dec- 
laration, demonstration, dedication. It is most natural 
for us to presume that Lincoln, who studied and quoted 
the Declaration of Independence more frequently 
than any other American statesman of his own time, 
or any other, should have been strikingly impressed 
with the logical order so plainly and powerfully put 
in the Declaration of Independence, by his great proto- 
type, Thomas Jefferson. 

From the time Lincoln first entered politics in 1832, 
when but twenty-three years of age, until his martyr- 
dom in 1865, it is the logician, the thinker, the reasoner, 
that we meet at every turn of the road, and all the 
while he is dealing with matters of human interest, 
matters that are cardinal and controlling in any given 
situation; and when he has presented his cause and 
offered his proof in support thereof, by a course of 
reasoning amounting to a "demonstration," he could 
confidently submit it to the people in the belief that 
he would persuade them, or a majority of them, to 
the Lincoln view of things. 

Lincoln's ability as a logician had its severest test 
when he, as the "big giant" of the Republican party 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 131 

of Illinois, met the "little giant" of the Democratic 
party of Illinois, Stephen A. Douglas, in pohtical de- 
bate, in 1858. 

Herndon says* concerning Lincoln and Douglas: 
"History furnishes few characters whose lives and 
careers were so nearly parallel as those of Lincoln and 
Douglas. They met for the first time at the legisla- 
ture in Vandalia in 1834, where Lincoln was a member 
of the house of representatives and Douglas was in 
the lobby. The next year Douglas was also a member. 
In 1839 both were admitted to practice in the supreme 
court of Ilhnois on the same day. In 1841 both courted 
the same young lady. In 1846 both represented Il- 
linois in congress at Washington, the one in the upper 
and the other in the lower House. In 1858 they were 
opposing candidates for United States Senator; and 
finally, to complete the remarkable counterpart, both 
were candidates for the presidency in 1860. While 
it is true that their ambitions ran in parallel lines, yet 
they were exceedingly unlike in all other particulars. 
Douglas was short, — something over five feet high, — 
heavy set, with a large head, broad shoulders, deep 
chest, and striking features. He was polite and affable, 
but fearless. He had that unique trait, magnetism, 
fully developed in his nature, and that attracted a host 
of friends and readily made him a popular idol. He 
had had extensive experience in debate, and had been 
trained by contact for years with the great minds and 
orators in congress. He was full of pohtical history, 
well informed on general topics, eloquent almost to 
the point of brilhancy, self-confident to the point of 
arrogance, and a dangerous competitor in every re- 
spect. What he lacked in ingenuity he made up in 

* Vol. II., page 72. 



132 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

strategy, and if in debate he could not tear down the 
structure of his opponent's argument by a direct and 
violent attack, he was by no means reluctant to resort 
to a strained restatement of the latter's position or 
to the extravagance of ridicule. Lincoln knew his man 
thoroughly and well. He had often met Douglas on 
the stump; was familiar with his tactics, and though 
fully aware of his 'want of fixed political morals,' was 
not averse to measuring swords with the elastic and 
flexible 'Little Giant.' 

"Lincoln himself was constructed on an entirely 
different foundation. His base was plain common 
sense, direct statement, and the inflexibihty of logic. 
In physical make-up he was cold — at least not mag- 
netic — and made no effort to dazzle people by his bear- 
ing. He cared nothing for a following, and though he 
had often before struggled for a poHtical prize, yet in 
his efforts he never had strained his well-known spirit 
of fairness or open love of the truth. He analyzed 
everything, laid every statement bare, and by dint of 
his broad reasoning powers and manliness of admission 
inspired his hearers with deep conviction of his earnest- 
ness and honesty. Douglas may have electrified the 
crowds with his eloquence or charmed them with his 
majestic bearing and dexterity in debate, but as each 
man, after the meetings were over and the applause 
had died away, went to his home, his head rang with 
Lincoln's logic and appeal to manhood." 

In the campaign of 1858 no political contest from 
coast to coast held the attention of the public like the 
"joint discussion" between Stephen A. Douglas and 
Abraham Lincoln in the State of Ilhnois. 

The debates were held beginning August 21 to Oc- 
tober 15 inclusive. They w^ere seven in number, one 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 133 

held in each congressional district so as to cover the 
entire State. 

Douglas was the Democratic candidate for United 
States senator as his own successor. Lincoln had been 
unanimously nominated as a candidate for the same 
office by the Republican State Convention of Illinois, 
held at Springfield on June 17. 

These seven speeches interestingly and exhaustively 
cover the issues of that time, and in full occupy two 
hundred pages of closely printed matter. They merit 
the careful attention and study of every pohtical stu- 
dent, of the debater, the orator, the logician, the Un- 
guist. They have an intense human interest in that 
they cover the history of our country upon the subject 
of slavery, as well as the fundamental principles of our 
government from its very beginning to the hour of 
discussion. 

This debate takes us back to his fife in Gentryville, 
when he stood upon the stump and talked to the trees, 
arguing pro and con upon the issues of the day, and 
his practice of "polemics," as he called it, in the debat- 
ing societies of that early day, his labors in Hke fine at 
New Salem, his "Lyceum" at Springfield. He was a 
"veritable gladiator" in debate. 

It would be impossible to give the reader a proper 
view of his great logical powers without in some 
measure reviewing this extended debate. 



CHAPTER XI 

LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 

(continued) 

Douglas had demanded and received the concession 
of not only opening and closing the first debate, but of 
opening and closing the series. This placed Mr. Lin- 
coln under a considerable handicap, owing to the fact 
that Senator Douglas had the vantage-ground of choos- 
ing and defining the issues of that debate. 

In the popular judgment at least Lincoln was more 
or less forced against his will to follow Douglas's lead 
and to devote much of his time to answering Douglas's 
charges as to matters that were pecuharly personal and 
unimportant as to the great issues of that day, but 
which, the charge having been made, must receive 
some measure of answer. 

The political finesse and personal adroitness of 
Douglas is nowhere more apparent than in the charges 
that he brought against Lincoln, to wit : 

"1. That Trumbull, as an old-time Democrat, and 
Lincoln, as an old-time Whig, had formed an unholy 
combination to break up these two parties. 

"2. That Lincoln was responsible for the abolition 
platform of 1854 at Springfield. 

"3. That the Buchanan administration was fighting 
Douglas because he was against the Lecompton Con- 
stitutional Convention, and that Lincoln and Trum- 
bull were in this 'conspiracy.' 

134 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 135 

"4. That Lincoln was guilty of political treason in 
attacking the 'Dred Scott decision.' 

"5. That Lincoln, by virtue of his Springfield speech, 
was emphatically sectional, and was endeavoring to 
array the North against the South. 

''6. That Lincoln stood for absolute equahty be- 
tween the black and white, socially and politically. 

*'7. That Lincoln's opposition to the Mexican War 
was unpatriotic and even treasonable." 

No wonder that Lincoln should have characterized 
this style of argument on the part of Douglas in aban- 
doning the great political issues of the day and devot- 
ing his time chiefly to personal politics by the fol- 
lowing observation: 

''Douglas is playing cuttle fish — a small species of 
fish that has no mode of defending himself when pur- 
sued except by throwing out a black fluid which makes 
the water so dark the enemy cannot see it, and thus 
escapes." 

Upon the other hand, Lincoln strenuously endeav- 
ored to centre the debate upon the great questions 
of that day, and as far as he could, with due def- 
erence to the position of his opponent, discussed the 
big questions at issue along the following several 
lines: 

1. That slavery was a great evil and a violation of 
the fundamental principle of our government as an- 
nounced in the Declaration of Independence, ''all men 
are created equal." 

2. That our fathers, while recognizing slavery under 
the Constitution, believed that it was "in the course 
of ultimate extinction." 

3. That the Kansas-Nebraska Act, as a piece of 
legislation by Congress, and the Dred Scott decision 



136 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

as an unconstitutional piece of legislation by a court, 
had reversed the poUcy of ''ultimate extinction" by 
the fathers and aided and encouraged the ''further 
spread of it" (slavery). 

4. That Douglas so-called "squatter sovereignty" 
was a sham and a fallacy. 

5. That while he (Lincoln) believed slavery to be 
wrong, nevertheless he stood for giving to the slave- 
masters of the South the full and complete protection 
in the possession and enjoyment of their slaves as de- 
clared in the Constitution; in short, that there should 
be no disturbance or interference with the domestic 
institutions in the States of the South. 

Upon the first proposition he said : 

"But I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is 
no reason in the world why the negro is not entitled to 
all the natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of 
Independence — the right to life, liberty, and the pur- 
suit of happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled 
to these as the white man. I agree with Judge Doug- 
las he is not my equal in many respects — certainly not 
in color, perhaps not in moral or intellectual endow- 
ment. But in the right to eat the bread, without the 
leave of anybody else, which his own hand earns, he is 
my equal, and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal 
of every living man.'^ 

Upon the second proposition he said: 

"And when the Judge reminds me that I have often 
said to him that the institution of slavery has existed 
for eighty years in some States, and yet it does not exist 
in some others, I agree to the fact, and I account for it 
by looking at the position in which our fathers origi- 
nally placed it — restricting it from the new Territories 
where it had not gone, and legislating to cut off its 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 137 

source by the abrogation of the slave-trade, thus put- 
ting the seal of legislation against its spread. The pub- 
lic mind did rest in the belief that it was in the course 
of ultimate extinction. But lately, I think — and in 
this I charge nothing on the Judge's motives — lately, I 
think, that he, and those acting with him, have placed 
that institution on a new basis, which looks to the 
perpetuity and nationalization of slavery. And while it 
is placed upon this new basis, I say, and I have said, 
that I beheve we shall not have peace upon the question 
until the opponents of slavery arrest the further spread 
of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in 
the behef that it is in the course of ultimate extinc- 
tion, or, on the other hand, that its advocates will push 
it forward until it shall become alike lawful in all 
the States, old as well as new, North as well as South. 
Now, I believe if we could arrest the spread, and place 
it where Washington and Jefferson and Madison placed 
it, it would be in the course of ultimate extinction, and 
the public mind would, as for eighty years past, beheve 
that it was in the course of ultimate extinction. The 
crisis would be past, and the institution might be let 
alone for a hundred years, if it should live so long, in 
the States where it exists; yet it would be going out of 
existence in the way best for both the black and the 
white races." 

Upon the third proposition Lincoln called attention 
to the fact that the old Missouri Compromise Act of 
1820 had absolutely prohibited the further spread of 
slavery north of 36° 30', save and except the State of 
Missouri — 36° 30' was the parallel of the southern 
boundary of that State — and that the Kansas-Nebraska 
Act, of which Douglas was the father and the Dred 
Scott decision, of which Chief Justice Taney was the 



138 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

author, was a reversal of the policy of ultimate extinc- 
tion favored by the fathers. 

Upon this latter charge Lincoln said, first in the 
Springfield speech and later on in the debates: 

"We cannot absolutely know that these exact 
adaptations are the result of preconcert; but when 
we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of 
which we know have been gotten out at different times 
and places, and by different workmen, — Stephen, 
Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance, — and when 
we see these timbers joined together, and see they 
exactly make the frame of a house or a mill, all the 
tenons and mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths 
and proportions of the different pieces exactly adapted 
to their respective places, and not a piece too many 
or too few, — not omitting the scaffolding, — or if a 
single piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame 
exactly fitted and prepared yet to bring such piece 
in, — in such a case we feel it impossible not to believe 
that Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all 
understood one another from the beginning, and all 
worked upon a common plan or draft drawn before 
the first blow was struck." 

Lincoln the logician nowhere more persuasively ap- 
peals than in his attack upon the Dred Scott decision. 

He said: 

"This man sticks to a decision which forbids the 
people of a Territory from excluding slavery, and he 
does so, not because he says it is right in itself, — he 
does not give any opinion on that, — but because it 
has been decided hy the court ; and being decided by 
the com-t, he is, and you are, bound to take it in your 
political action as law, not that he judges at all of its 
merits, but because a decision of the court is to him 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 139 

a 'Thus saith the Lord.' He places it on that ground 
alone ; and you will bear in mind that thus committing 
himself unreservedly to this decision commits him to 
the next one just as firmly as to this. He did not commit 
himself on account of the merit or demerit of the de- 
cision, but it is a 'Thus saith the Lord.' The next de- 
cision, as much as this, will be a 'Thus saith the Lord.' 
There is nothing that can divert or turn him away 
from this decision. It is nothing that I point out to 
him that his great prototype, General Jackson, did 
not believe in the binding force of decisions. It is 
nothing to him that Jefferson did not so believe. I 
have said that I have often heard him approve of Jack- 
son's course in disregarding the decision of the Supreme 
Court pronouncing a National Bank constitutional. 
He says, I did not hear him say so. He denies the 
accuracy of my recollection. I say he ought to know 
better than I, but I will make no question about this 
thing, though it still seems to me that I heard him say 
it twenty times. I will tell him, though, that he now 
claims to stand on the Cincinnati platform which af- 
firms that Congress cannot charter a National Bank, 
in the teeth of that old standing decision that Con- 
gress can charter a bank. And I remind him of an- 
other piece of history on the question of respect for 
judicial decisions, and it is a piece of Illinois history 
belonging to a time when the large party to which 
Judge Douglas belonged were displeased with a de- 
cision of the Supreme Court of Illinois, because they 
had decided that a Governor could not remove a Secre- 
tary of State. You will find the whole story in Ford's 
History of Illinois, and I know that Judge Douglas 
will not deny that he was then in favor of overslaugh- 
ing that decision by the mode of adding five new judges, 



140 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

so as to vote down the four old ones. Not only so, 
but it ended in the Judge^s sitting down on that very 
bench as one of the five new judges to break down the four 
old ones. It was in this way precisely that he got his 
title of judge. Now, when the Judge tells me that 
men appointed conditionally to sit as members of a 
court will have to be catechised beforehand upon some 
subject, I say, 'You know, Judge; you have tried it.' 
When he says a court of this kind will lose the con- 
fidence of all men, will be prostituted and disgraced 
by such a proceeding, I say, 'You know best. Judge; 
you have been through the mill.' But I cannot shake 
Judge Douglas's teeth loose from the Dred Scott de- 
cision. Like some obstinate animal (I mean no dis- 
respect) that will hang on when he has once got his 
teeth fixed, you may cut off a leg, or you may tear away 
an arm, still he will not relax his hold. And so I may 
point out to the Judge, and say that he is bespattered 
all over, from the beginning of his political life to the 
present time, with attacks upon judicial decisions; 
I may cut off limb after limb of his public record, and 
strive to wrench him from a single dictum of the 
court, — yet I cannot divert him from it. He hangs, 
to the last, to the Dred Scott decision. These things 
show there is a purpose strong as death and eternity for 
which he adheres to this decision, and for which he 
will adhere to all other decisions of the same court." 
On the fourth proposition, Mr. Lincoln said: 
"What is Popular Sovereignty? Is it the right of 
the people to have slavery or not have it, as they see 
fit, in the Territories? I will state — and I have an 
able man to watch me — my understanding is that 
Popular Sovereignty, as now apphed to the question 
of slavery, does allow the people of a Territory to have 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 141 

slavery if they want to, but does not allow them not 
to have it if they do not want it. (Dred Scott decision) 
I do not mean that if this vast concourse of people 
were in a Territory of the United States, any one of 
them would be obliged to have a slave if he did not 
want one ; but I do say that, as I understand the Dred 
Scott decision, if any one man wants slaves, all the 
rest have no way of keeping that one man from hold- 
ing them." 

On the fifth proposition, Mr. Lincoln said: 

"When they remind us of their constitutional rights, 
I acknowledge them, not grudgingly, but fully and 
fairly; and I would give them any legislation for the 
reclaiming of their fugitives which, should not, in its 
stringency, be more likely to carry a free man into 
slavery, than our ordinary criminal laws are to hang 
an innocent one. ... I will say here, while upon 
this subject, that I have no purpose, directly or in- 
directly, to interfere with the institution of slavery 
in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful 
right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so." 

I submit that a careful reading of these debates will 
clearly and conclusively show that these positions are 
unanswerable, and that certainly there was nothing 
in anything that Douglas said, however plausible he 
was, that squarely attempted to answer them. It was 
the "cuttle fish" sort of argument. 

Throughout the debate he sought to take advantage 
of the public state of mind in reference to its prejudices 
against social and marital equahty for the negro. Upon 
this proposition Mr. Lincoln said: 

"I have no purpose to introduce pohtical and social 
equality between the white and black races. There 
is a physical difference between the two which in my 



142 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

judgment will probably forever forbid their living to- 
gether upon the footing of perfect equahty." 

He further said : 

"And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they 
do remain together there must be the position of 
superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man 
am in favor of having the superior position assigned 
to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not 
perceive that because the white man is to have the 
superior position the negro should be denied every- 
thing. I do not understand that because I do not 
want a negro woman for a slave I must necessarily 
want her for a wife. My understanding is that I can 
just let her alone. I am now in my fiftieth year, and 
I certainly never have had a black woman for either 
a slave or a wife. So it seems to me quite possible for 
us to get along without making either slaves or wives 
of negroes." 

Douglas's effort to commit Lincoln to the proposi- 
tion of social and political equality between the black 
and white is referred to throughout the debates. 

Indeed, in almost every one of the series of seven, 
Lincoln (the audience being a new one) feels called 
upon to make reply. Throughout the debates Lincoln 
is insistent upon giving the South her constitutional 
rights as to slavery with zealous and vigilant care. 
Nevertheless, he does insist most vigorously that slavery 
is inherently wrong. 

Upon this proposition he says: 

"We have in this nation this element of domestic 
slavery. It is a matter of absolute certainty that it 
is a disturbing element. It is the opinion of all the 
great men who have expressed an opinion upon it, 
that it is a dangerous element. We keep up a con- 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 143 

troversy in regard to it. That controversy necessarily 
springs from difference of opinion; and if we can learn 
exactly — can reduce to the lowest elements — what 
that difference of opinion is, we perhaps shall be better 
prepared for discussing the different systems of policy 
that we would propose in regard to that disturbing 
element. I suggest that the difference of opinion, re- 
duced to its lowest of terms, is no other than the dif- 
ference between the men who think slavery a wrong, 
and those who do not think it wrong. The Republican 
party think it wrong; we think it is a moral, a social, 
and a political wrong. We think it as a wrong not 
confining itself merely to the persons or the States 
where it exists, but that it is a wrong in its tendency, 
to say the least, that extends itself to the existence of 
the whole nation. Because we think it wrong, we pro- 
pose a course of policy that shall deal with it as a wrong. 
We deal with it as with any other wrong, in so far as 
we can prevent its growing any larger, and so deal with 
it that in the run of time there may be some promise 
of an end to it. We have a due regard to the actual 
presence of it amongst us, and the difficulties of getting 
rid of it in any satisfactory way, and all the constitu- 
tional obligations thrown about it. I suppose that 
in reference both to its actual existence in the nation, 
and to our constitutional obligations, we have no right 
at all to disturb it in the States where it exists, and we 
profess that we have no more inclination to disturb 
it than we have the right to do it. We go further than 
that: we don't propose to disturb it where, in one in- 
stance, we think the Constitution would permit us. 
We think the Constitution would permit us to disturb 
it in the District of Columbia. Still, we do not propose 
to do that, unless it should be in terms which I don't 



144 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

suppose the nation is very likely soon to agree to, — 
the terms of making the emancipation gradual, and 
compensating the unwilhng owners. Where we sup- 
pose we have the constitutional right, we retrain our- 
selves in reference to the actual existence of the in- 
stitution and the difficulties thrown about it. We 
also oppose it as an evil so far as it seeks to spread it- 
self. We insist on the policy that shall restrict it to 
its present limits. We don't suppose that in doing 
this we violate anything due to the actual presence 
of the institution, or anything due to the constitu- 
tional guaranties thrown around it. . . . He (Judge 
Douglas) has the high distinction, so far as I know, 
of never having said slavery is either right or wrong. 
Almost everybody else says one or the other, but the 
Judge never does. If there be a man in the Democratic 
party who thinks it is wrong, and yet clings to that 
party, I suggest to him, in the first place, that his 
leader don't talk as he does, for he never says that it 
is wrong. In the second place, I suggest to him that 
if he will examine the policy proposed to be carried 
forward, he will find that he carefully excludes the 
idea that there is anything wrong in it. If you will 
examine the arguments that are made on it, you will 
find that every one carefully excludes the idea that 
there is anything wrong in slavery." 

In the last debate at Alton, October 15, 1858, Lin- 
coln again states his position in clear and unmistakable 
as well as unanswerable terms: 

"I think the authors of that notable instrument 
intended to include all men, but they did not mean 
to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not 
mean to say all men were equal in color, size, intellect, 
moral development, or social capacity. They defined 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 145 

with tolerable distinctness in what they did consider 
all men created equal, — equal in certain inalienable 
rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness. This they said, and this they meant. 
They did not mean to assert the obvious untruth that 
all were then actually enjoying that equality, or yet 
that they were about to confer it immediately upon 
them. In fact, they had no power to confer such a 
boon. They meant simply to declare the right, so that 
the enforcement of it might follow as fast as circum- 
stances should permit. 

''They meant to set up a standard maxim for free 
society which should be famihar to all, — constantly 
looked to, constantly labored for, and even, though 
never perfectly attained, constantly approximated, 
and thereby constantly spreading and deepening its 
influence, and augmenting the happiness and value 
of Ufe to all people, of all colors, everywhere." 

On the question of slavery being a constant menace 
to the Union, Lincoln says: 

"But is it true that all the difficulty and agitation 
we have in regard to this institution of slavery springs 
from office seeking, from the mere ambition of politi- 
cians? Is that the truth? How many times have 
we had danger from this question? Go back to the 
day of the Missouri Compromise. Go back to the 
Nullification question, at the bottom of which lay this 
same slavery question. Go back to the time of the 
Annexation of Texas. Go back to the troubles that 
led to the Compromise of 1850. You will find that 
every time, with the single exception of the Nullifica- 
tion question, they sprung from an endeavor to spread 
this institution. There never was a party in the his- 
tory of this country, and there probably never will 



146 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

be, of sufficient strength to disturb the general peace 
of the country. Parties themselves may be divided 
and quarrel on minor questions, yet it extends not 
beyond the parties themselves. But does not this ques- 
tion make a disturbance outside of political circles? 
Does it not enter into the churches and rend them 
asunder? What divided the great Methodist Church 
into two parts, North and South? What has raised 
this constant disturbance in every Presbyterian Gen- 
eral Assembly that meets? What disturbed the Uni- 
tarian Church in this very city two years ago ? What 
has jarred and shaken the great American Tract So- 
ciety recently, not yet splitting it, but sure to divide 
it in the end ? Is it not this same mighty, deep-seated 
power that somehow operates on the minds of men, 
exciting and stirring them up in every avenue of so- 
ciety, — in politics, in religion, in literature, in morals, 
in all the manifold relations of life? Is this the work 
of politicians? Is that irresistible power, which for 
fifty years has shaken the government and agitated 
the people, to be stilled and subdued by pretending 
that it is an exceedingly simple thing, and we ought 
not to talk about it? If you will get everybody else 
to stop talking about it, I assure you I will quit before 
they have half done so. But where is the philosophy 
or statesmanship which assumes that you can quiet 
that disturbing element in our society which has dis- 
turbed us for more than half a century, which has been 
the only serious danger that has threatened our in- 
stitutions, — I say, where is the philosophy or the states- 
manship based on the assumption that we are to quit 
talking about it, and that the pubhc mind is all at once 
to cease being agitated by it? Yet this is the poUcy 
here in the North that Douglas is advocating, — that 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 147 

we are to care nothing about ! I ask you if it is not a 
false philosophy. Is it not a false statesmanship that 
undertakes to build up a system of policy upon the 
basis of caring nothing about the very thing that every- 
body does care the most about ? — a thing which all ex- 
perience has shown we care a very great deal about?" 

"On this subject of treating it as a wrong, and limit- 
ing its spread, let me say a word. Has anything ever 
threatened the existence of this Union save and except 
this very institution of slavery? What is it that we 
hold most dear amongst us? Our own hberty and 
prosperity. What has ever threatened our liberty and 
prosperity save and except this institution of slavery? 
If this is true, how do you propose to improve the con- 
dition of things by enlarging slavery, — by spreading 
it out and making it bigger? You may have a wen 
or cancer upon your person, and not be able to cut it 
out, lest you bleed to death; but surely it is no way 
to cure it, to engraft it and spread it over your whole 
.body. That is no proper way of treating what you 
regard a wrong. You see this peaceful way of deahng 
with it as a wrong, — restricting the spread of it, and 
not allowing it to go into new countries where it has 
not already existed. That is the peaceful way, the 
old-fashioned way, the way in which the fathers them- 
selves set us the example. 

"He says he 'don't care whether it is voted up or 
voted down' in the Territories. I do not care myself, 
in dealing with that expression, whether it is intended 
to be expressive of his individual sentiments on the 
subject, or only of the national policy he desires to 
have established. It is alike valuable for my purpose. 
Any man can say that who does not see anything wrong 



148 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

in slavery; but no man can logically say it who does 
see a wrong in it, because no man can logically say he 
don't care whether a wrong is voted up or voted down. 
He may say he don't care whether an indifferent thing 
is voted up or down, but he must logically have a choice 
between a right thing and a wrong thing. He contends 
that whatever community wants slaves has a right 
to have them. So they have, if it is not a wrong. But 
if it is a wrong, he cannot say people have a right to 
do wrong. He says that upon the score of equality, 
slaves should be allowed to go in a new Territory, like 
other property. This is strictly logical if there is no 
difference between it and other property. If it and 
other property are equal, his argument is entirely log- 
ical. But if you insist that one is wrong and the other 
right, there is no use to institute a comparison be- 
tween right and wrong. You may turn over every- 
thing in the Democratic pohcy from beginning to end, 
whether in the shape it takes on the statute book, in 
the shape it takes in the Dred Scott decision, in the 
shape it takes in conversation, or the shape it takes 
in short maxim-like arguments, — it everywhere care- 
fully excludes the idea that there is anything wrong in it. 
''That is the real issue. That is the issue that will 
continue in this country when these poor tongues of 
Judge Douglas and myself shall be silent. It is the 
eternal struggle between these two principles — right 
and wrong — throughout the world. They are the 
two principles that have stood face to face from the 
beginning of time, and will ever continue to struggle. 
The one is the common right of humanity, and the 
other the divine right of kings. It is the same principle 
in whatever shape it develops itself. It is the same 
spirit that says, 'You work and toil and earn bread, 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 149 

and I'll eat it.' No matter in what shape it comes, 
whether from the mouth of a king who seeks to be- 
stride the people of his own nation and live by the 
fruit of their labor, or from one race of men as 
an apology for enslaving another race, it is the same 
tyrannical principle." 

Again Lincoln exposes Douglas's doctrine of ''un- 
friendly legislation" that the latter favored in the 
Freeport debate as follows: 

''Although it is a right established by the Constitu- 
tion of the United States to take a slave into a Terri- 
tory of the United States and hold him as property, 
yet, unless the Territorial Legislature will give friendly 
legislation, and, more especially, if they adopt un- 
friendly legislation, they can practically exclude him. 
Now, without meeting this proposition as a matter of 
fact, I pass to consider the real constitutional obliga- 
tion. Let me take the gentleman who looks me in the 
face before me, and let us suppose that he is a member 
of the Territorial Legislature. The first thing he will 
do will be to swear that he will support the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. His neighbor by his side in 
the Territory has slaves and needs Territorial legisla- 
tion to enable him to enjoy that constitutional right. 
Can he withhold the legislation which his neighbor 
needs for the enjoyment of a right which is fixed in his 
favor in the Constitution of the United States which 
he has sworn to support ? Can he ^vithhold it without 
violating his oath? And, more especially, can he pass 
unfriendly legislation to violate his oath? Why, this 
is a monstrous sort of talk about the Constitution of 
the United States ! There has never been as outlandish 
or lawless a doctrine from the mouth of any respectable 
man on earth. I do not believe it is a constitutional 



150 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

right to hold slaves in a Territory of the United States. 
I believe the decision was improperly made and I go 
for reversing it. Judge Douglas is furious against those 
who go for reversing a decision. But he is for legis- 
lating it out of all force while the law itself stands. I 
repeat that there has never been so monstrous a doc- 
trine uttered from the mouth of a respectable man." 

Lincoln most successfully exposed the fallacy of this 
doctrine of "squatter sovereignty," announced at Free- 
port, in one sentence of his great speech at Columbus, 
Ohio, in 1859, when he said: 

"When all the trash, the words, the collateral mat- 
ter, was cleared away from it, all chaff was fanned 
out of it, it was a pure absurdity — no less than a thing 
may be lawfully driven away from where it has a lawful 
right to be. Clear it of all verbiage and that is the 
naked truth of his proposition — that a thing may be 
lawfully driven from the place where it has a lawful 
right to stay." 

It is Uttle wonder that throughout the country wher- 
ever* these debates or extracts from them had been 
pubhshed, that the things that were remembered be- 
cause they were approved, were Lincoln's apt and able 
arguments demonstrating that slavery was a great evil, 
that "the fathers beheved it in the course of ultimate 
extinction," and that the South, with Senator Douglas 
and others as alHes, was now endeavoring to reverse 
that policy through the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, Dred 
Scott decision, and other means to bring about the 
further spread of slavery. 

Greeley, in speaking of the Lincoln-Douglas debates, 
says: 

"I cannot help regarding that senatorial contest of 
1858 between Lincoln and Douglas as one of the most 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 151 

characteristic and at the same time most creditable 
incidents in our national life. There was an honest 
and earnest difference with regard to a most important 
and imminent public question. ... So the two cham- 
pions traversed the prairies speaking alternately to the 
same vast audiences at several central accessible points, 
and speaking separately at others, until the day of the 
election; when Douglas secured a small majority in 
either branch of the legislature and was re-elected, 
though Lincoln had the larger popular vote. . . . Lin- 
coln, it was said, was beaten; it was hasty erring judg- 
ment. This canvass made him stronger at home, 
stronger with the Republicans of the whole country, 
and when the next National Convention of his party 
assembled 18 months thereafter he became its nominee 
for President and thus achieved the highest station in 
the gift of his country, but for that misjudged defeat 
in 1858 he would never have attained." 

These debates undoubtedly contributed more to 
make Abraham Lincoln a national character, capable 
of successful leadership in the public mind upon the 
dominant question of 1860, than any other achievement 
of his life. 

What Lincoln said in these debates made him the 
popular antislavery leader throughout the North. 
What Douglas said throughout these debates, espe- 
cially at Freeport, cost him his pohtical leadership 
throughout the South. As Lincoln had increased in 
presidential size by reason of the debate, Douglas had 
correspondingly decreased in presidential size. 

Lincoln's direct drives at the aggressions of the slave 
power were more than a match for Douglas's dodging. 
In the general public estimation Lincoln was greater 
in defeat than Douglas in victory. 



152 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

One thing more that should not be overlooked: 
Horace Greeley, the great editor of the New York 
Tribune, had been a thorn in the flesh of Lincoln 
since 1858, when he threw the influence of the Tribune 
in favor of Douglas's re-election as United States 
senator. 

After Lincoln's inauguration his unfriendliness 
seemed to develop in endeavoring to embarrass the 
administration upon the question of emancipation of 
the slave. Greeley was early and strongly in favor of 
that emancipation. He bitterly attacked Lincoln and 
the administration because it had not abolished slavery 
by some sweeping proclamation of emancipation. The 
clamor and criticism took a direct and definite form in 
an open letter by Horace Greeley, which was unusually 
severe and intemperate. It must have greatly pained 
the President. Lincoln did the most unusual thing of 
ignoring his dignity and answering the letter in these 
memorable words. In this letter we see again the 
master mind of the logician. Read and reread it: 

''Hon. Horace Greeley, Dear Sir: I have just read 
yours of the nineteenth instant, addressed to myself 
through the New York Tribune. 

''If there be in it any statements or assumptions of 
fact which I may know to be erroneous, I do not now 
and here controvert them. 

"If there be any inferences which I may believe to 
be falsely drawn, I do not now and here argue against 
them. 

"If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dic- 
tatorial tone, I waive it in deference to an old friend 
whose heart I have always supposed to be right. 

"As to the poHcy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as you 



LINCOLN THE LOGICIAN 153 

say, I have not meant to leave any one in doubt. I 
would save the Union. I would save it in the shortest 
way under the Constitution. 

''The sooner the national authority can be re- 
stored, the nearer the Union will be — the Union as it 
was. 

"If there be those who would not save the Union 
unless they could at the same time save slavery, I do 
not agree with them. 

"If there be those who would not save the Union 
unless they could at the same time destroy slavery, I 
do not agree with them. 

"My paramount object is to save the Union, and 
not either to save or destroy slavery. 

"If I could save the Union without freeing any slave, 
I would do it ; if I could save it by freeing all the slaves, 
I would do it; and if I could do it by freeing some and 
leaving others alone, I would also do that. 

"What I do about slavery and the colored race, I 
do because I beUeve it helps to save this Union; and 
what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it 
would help to save the Union. 

"I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am 
doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I 
believe doing more will help the cause. 

"I shall try to correct errors when shown to be 
errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they 
shall appear to be true views. 

"I have here stated my purpose according to my 
views of official duty, and I intend no modification of 
my oft-expressed personal wish that all men every- 
where could be free. 

"Yours, 

"A. Lincoln." 



154 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

That letter must have been very embarrassing to 
Mr. Greeley and it no doubt suggested to him that, 
after all, he had underestimated the ability of this 
''rail-splitter" from Illinois, who not only knew how 
to use a maul but how to use a pen driven by a maul. 

Lincoln had no place in his logic, his language, or his 
life for falsehood or fallacy, hypocrisy or camouflage. 



CHAPTER XII 

LINCOLN LANGUAGE 

"Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?" 

—Job. 

Where did Lincoln get his language? From the 
Bible, Bunyan's ''Pilgrim's Progress," "iEsop's Fables," 
DeFoe's "Robinson Crusoe," Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, Blackstone, and last but not least, the dictionary 
that he used and studied continually. These gave him 
models or types of the simple, piu-e, and powerful 
English. 

He followed the advice of the poet who wrote: 

"And don't confound the language of the nation 
With long tailed words in osity and ation." 

Lincoln's words were simple, short, and strong. 
They were straightforward and hence free from doubt. 
You always knew what he meant from what he said. 
His great aim was simple speech, as he himself has 
said: 

''I could not sleep, although I tried to, when I got 
on such a hunt for an idea until I had caught it; and 
when I thought I had got it I was not satisfied until 
I had repeated it over and over again until I had put it 
in language plain enough, as I thought, for any boy I 
knew to comprehend. . . . This was a kind of passion 
with me." 

From these books and also later from Burns and 
Shakespeare, he picked out the strong, striking pas- 

155 



156 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

sages and repeated them over and over again, and then 
he would take the sentiment and put it in simple 
speech, or, as he says, ''in language plain enough, as I 
thought, for any boy I knew to comprehend." 

As we have seen before, this he did upon logs and 
bark, shingles and shovels, with a piece of charcoal, 
with quills and pokeberry juice on scraps of paper, 
and finally, when he had put his idea in plain, pointed 
phrase, he would copy it in his scrap-book to preserve 
it for future use. 

Mentor Graham has well said what many of his 
biographers have referred to in Lincoln's study of 
language: 

''I have known him to study for hours the best way 
of three to express an idea." 

Just so did he study and master the Enghsh lan- 
guage in the preparation of all his compositions. 

When I think of the average boys or girls in the 
modern school and college making a sort of bugbear 
of their work in Enghsh composition, it seems more 
than striking strange that the boy Lincoln, and youth 
Lincoln, and man Lincoln, was constantly studying and 
selecting words for their wealth of ideas and imagery 
that would give to the human mind a simple, strong 
concept of what he wished to convey. 

His meagre materials, limited opportunities, unfa- 
vorable surroundings, would have fatally discouraged 
most boys, but his "passion" for these things made 
his pursuit of the knowledge of Enghsh a real pleasure; 
and if a tree is known by its fruits, then Lincoln's mas- 
tery of language is the highest evidence of his careful, 
constant, and conscientious study of great masterpieces 
of English prose and poetry. 

His biographers have written as follows: 



LINCOLN LANGUAGE 157 

Nicolay and Hay say of him: 

''Nothing would have more amazed Mr. Lincoln 
than to hear himself called a man of letters; but this 
age had produced few greater writers. Emerson ranks 
him with Ji^sop; Montalembert commends his style as 
a model for Princes." 

Curtis says : 

''He used the simplest words in the language, but 
they strengthened every case he stated, and no fact, 
or anecdote or argument ever lost force or effect from 
his style of presentation." 

Holland says: 

"He had been from a child in the habit of putting 
his thoughts into language. He wrote much, and to 
this fact is doubtless owing his clearness in statement. 
He could state with great exactness any fact within 
the range of his knowledge. His knowledge was not 
great, nor his vocabulary rich, but he could state the 
details of one by the use of the other with a precision 
that Daniel Webster never surpassed." 

But in addition to the books that he studied and 
assimilated the use that he made of this knowledge, 
though referred to in a previous chapter, will bear 
repetition, for after all in study the first essential is 
"repetition." 

Bacon has said "reading maketh a full man, confer- 
ence a ready man, and writing an exact man." The 
boy Lincoln was constantly doing all three, but seemed 
particularly to grasp the importance of putting his 
thoughts in the plainest phrase that had point and 
" punch " to it. 

His boyhood compositions on "Temperance," "Cru- 
elty to Animals," and the "American Government," 
which he wrote at an early age for his own disciphne 



158 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

and education, were great factors in producing the 
Gettysburg Address. 

So likewise were his hunible efforts as a boy in pubhc 
speaking to the trees of the forest, to the boys and 
girls of the neighborhood, to the literary societies and 
debating clubs and lyceums, each time doing a little 
better than he had done the time before. 

Of course when we think of Lincoln the orator we 
think of the Gettysburg oration, which wall be found 
on page 221. 

This two-minute oration was such a masterpiece of 
logic, language, pohtics, and patriotism, that a special 
chapter has been later devoted to its psychology, its 
unity of thought, its fundamental democracy, its ele- 
gance of expression, typical not only of those times 
but of the times to-day. 

His language is as pure and persuasive as his logic 
is plain and powerful, and they are almost inseparable 
by any analysis of his speeches or papers. 

What would serve as an illustration of the one very 
often performs the same service in the other. 

But some things that he has said are pecuharly 
pertinent to picture to the mind's eye his sweet, 
simple speech touching the tenderer relations of our 
humanity. This type of speech is best illustrated 
by what has become known as the ''Widow Bixby 
Letter." 

''Dear Madam: 

"I have been showTi in the files of the War Depart- 
ment a statement of the Adjutant General of Massa- 
chusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have 
died gloriously on the field of battle. 

"I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of 



LINCOLN LANGUAGE 159 

mine which should attempt to beguile you from the 
grief of a loss so overwhelming. 

"But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the 
consolation that may be found in the thanks of the 
Republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly 
Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement 
and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved 
and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to 
have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom. 
''Yours very sincerely and respectfully, 

"A. Lincoln." 

The Johnston children that Sarah Bush Johnston 
Lincoln brought into the new family when Abraham 
was only ten years of age mixed most agreeably with 
the young Lincolns. They were about the same age. 

One of the boys, John Johnston, was a shiftless, ne'er- 
do-well sort of fellow that was constantly appealing to 
Lincoln in later years for assistance. 

Numerous letters passed between them, indicating a 
very tender and intimate relation, notwithstanding 
Johnston's infirmities and his many importunities upon 
Lincoln, from time to time, for help. 

Lincoln, in his own inimitable way, sends him a 
letter, which for kind, fatherly advice is rarely excelled. 

Lincoln's human side, that was all prominent in his 
dealings with his fellow men, creeps out all through 
this letter. It is worthy of a place here to show his 
simple speech and his good sense and understanding 
of the kind of nature that he was dealing with. 

The letter follows: 

''Dear Johnston: 

"Your request for eighty dollars I do not think it 
best to comply with now. At the various times when 



160 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

I have helped you a Httle you have said to me, 'We 
can get along very well now/ but in a very short time 
I find you in the same difficulty again. Now this can 
only happen by some defect in your conduct. What 
that defect is, I think I know. You are not lazy, and 
still you are an idler. I doubt whether, since I saw 
you, you have done a good whole day's work in any 
one day. You do not very much disHke to work, and 
still you do not work much, merely because it does not 
seem to you that you could get much for it. This 
habit of uselessly wasting time is the whole difficulty; 
and it is vastly important to you, and still more so to 
your children, that you should break the habit. It is 
more important to them because they have longer to 
live, and can keep out of an idle habit, before they are 
in it, easier than they can get out after they are in. 

''You are in need of some ready money, and what I 
propose is that you shall go to work 'tooth and nail' 
for somebody who will give you money for it. Let 
father and your boys take charge of things at home, 
prepare for a crop, and make the crop, and you go to 
work for the best money wages, or in discharge of any 
debt you owe, that you can get — and to secure you a 
fair reward for your labor I now promise you that for 
every dollar you will, between this and the first of next 
May, get for your own labor, either in money or as 
your own indebtedness, I will then give you one other 
dollar. By this, if you hire yourself at ten dollars a 
month, from me you will get ten more, making twenty 
dollars a month for your work. In this I do not mean 
you shall go off to St. Louis, or the lead mines, or the 
gold mines in Cahfornia, but I mean for you to go at it 
for the best wages you can get close to home in Coles 
County. Now if you will do this, you will be soon out 



LINCOLN LANGUAGE 161 

of debt, and, what is better, you will have a habit that 
will keep you from getting in debt again. But if I 
should now clear you out, next year you would be just 
as deep in as ever. You say you would give your 
place in heaven for $70 or $80. Then you value your 
place in heaven very cheap, for I am sure you can, 
with the offer I make, get the seventy or eighty dollars 
for four or five months' work. 

''You say, if I will furnish you the money, you will 
deed me the land, and if you don't pay the money back 
you will deliver possession. Nonsense ! If you can't 
now Uve with the land, how will you then Uve without 
it? You have always been kind to me, and I do not 
mean to be unkind to you. On the contrary, if you 
will but follow my advice, you will find it worth more 
than eight times eighty dollars to you. 
"Affectionately, 

''Your brother, 

"A. Lincoln." 

The "Little Giant" of Illinois, with his apparent 
suavity and culture, might well be suspected as the 
author of the Bixby, or Johnston, hues, but the "Big 
Giant" of lUinois, with his uncouth and awkward 
exterior would be the last person in the State who 
would be presumed to have been the author of such 
sound sense and wholesome tender sentiment as ap- 
pears in the foregoing. 

For pure patriotic phrase, for a common sense of 
the great common heart of our humanity, this language 
is unsurpassed. 

I want to add here the closing of the first inaugural 
address : 

"The Chief Magistrate derives all his authority 



162 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

from the people, and they have conferred none upon 
him to fix terms for the separation of the States. The 
people themselves can do this also if they choose; but 
the Executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His 
duty is to administer the present Government, as it 
came to his hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by 
him, to his successor. 

"Wliy should there not be a patient confidence in 
the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better 
or equal hope in the world ? In our present differences 
is either party without faith of being in the right ? If 
the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with his eternal truth 
and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours 
of the South, that truth and that justice will surely 
prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the 
American people. 

"By the frame of the Government under which we 
live, this same people have wisely given their public 
servants but little power for mischief; and have, with 
equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little 
to their own hands at very short intervals. While 
the people retain their virtue and vigilance, no ad- 
ministration, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, 
can very seriously injure the Government in the short 
space of four years. 

''My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and 
well upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can 
be lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry 
any of you, in hot haste, to a step which you would 
never take deliberately, that object will be frustrated 
by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated 
by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still have 
the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive 
point, the laws of your own framing under it; while 



LINCOLN LANGUAGE 163 

the new Administration will have no immediate power, 
if it would, to change either. If it were admitted that 
you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dis- 
pute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate 
action. Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a 
firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this 
favored land are still competent to adjust, in the best 
way, all our present difficulty. 

''In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-country- 
men, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil 
war. The Government will not assail you. You can 
have no conflict, without being yourselves the ag- 
gressors. You have no oath registered in Heaven to 
destroy the Government, while I shall have the most 
solemn one to 'preserve, protect and defend it.' 

"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but 
friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion 
may have strained, it must not break our bonds of 
affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching 
from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every 
living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land, 
will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again 
touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels 
of our nature." 

Attention is challenged to the last paragraph. The 
preparation of this inaugural address will also be dealt 
with later. Here, it is sufficient to say that paragraph 
is the most important and substantial change made 
in the inaugural address. The change was made in 
Washington the day before the inaugural at the sug- 
gestion of Seward and concurred in by Chase and other 
members of the Cabinet. 

It was suggested that Mr. Lincoln's original draft 
was not sufficiently fraternal toward the South and 



164 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

its people, and that something further should be said 
on this point. Mr. Lincoln requested the secretary 
of state, Mr. Seward, to submit a draft. Seward sub- 
mitted the following: 

''I close. We are not, we must not be, aliens or 
enemies, but fellow-countrymen and brethren. Al- 
though passion has strained our bonds of affection 
too hardly, they must not, I am sure they will not, 
be broken. The mystic chords, which, proceeding from 
so many battlefields and so many patriot graves, 
pass through all the hearts and all hearths in this broad 
continent of ours, will yet again harmonize in their 
ancient music when breathed upon by the guardian 
angel of the nation." 

A study of this original paragraph and the revision 
made by Lincoln is not only interesting, but instruc- 
tive. It illuminates the superiority of Lincoln as a 
master of language far beyond that of his more scholarly 
and cultured secretary of state, Mr. Seward, who had 
been twice governor of New York, and twice elected 
United States senator from the Empire State, and 
whose defeat at Chicago gave the college men and cul- 
ture of the nation a severe shock. 

Lincoln's logic and language are so intertwined in 
one grand cable of conviction that of necessity they 
must be more or less treated together, and yet for sim- 
plicity and strength, statement and sweetness of senti- 
ment nothing has surpassed his second inaugural ad- 
dress. Because of its brevity and beauty, it is here 
given in full. 

"Fellow-Countrymen — At this second appearing to 
take the oath of the Presidential office, there is less 
occasion for an extended address than there was at 
the first. Then a statement somewhat in detail of a 



LINCOLN LANGUAGE 165 

course to be pursued seemed very fitting and proper. 
Now, at the expiration of four years, during which 
pubhc declarations have been constantly called forth 
on every point and phase of the great contest which 
still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies 
of the nation, little that is new could be presented. 

''The progress of our arms, upon which all else 
chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to 
myself; and it is, I trust, reasonably satisfactory and 
encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, 
no prediction in regard to it is ventured. 

"On the occasion corresponding to this four years 
ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impend- 
ing civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avoid it. 
While the inaugural address was being delivered from 
this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union 
without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking 
to destroy it without war — seeking to dissolve the 
Union and divide the effect by negotiation. Both 
parties deprecated war; but one of them would make 
war rather than let the nation survive, and the other 
would accept war rather than let it perish; and the 
war came. 

"One-eighth of the whole population were colored 
slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but 
localized in the southern part of it. These slaves con- 
stituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew 
that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. 
To strengthen, perpetuate and extend this interest, 
was the object for which the insurgents would rend 
the Union even by war, while the government claimed 
no right to do more than to restrict the territorial en- 
largement of it. 

"Neither party expected for the war the magnitude 



166 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

or the duration which it has abeady attained. Neither 
anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease 
with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease. 
Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less 
fundamental and astounding. 

"Both read the same Bible and pray to the same 
God, and each invokes his aid against the other. It 
may seem strange that any men should dare to ask 
a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from 
the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, 
that we be not judged. The prayers of both could 
not be answered. That of neither has been answered 
fulh'. The Almighty has his own purposes. 'Woe 
unto the world because of offences, for it must needs 
be that offences come: but woe to that man by whom 
the offence cometh.' If we shall suppose that Amer- 
ican slavery is one of these offences, which in the 
providence of God must needs come, but which having 
continued through his appointed time, he now wills 
to remove, and that he gives to both North and South 
this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the 
offence came, shall we discern therein any departure 
from those di\dne attributes which the behevers in a 
living God always ascribe to him? Fondly do we hope, 
fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war 
may soon pass away. Yet, if God wills that it con- 
tinue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two 
hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be 
sunk, and until every drop of blood drawTi with the 
lash shall be paid wdth another drawn -^ith the sword; 
as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must 
be said, 'The judgments of the Lord are true and 
righteous altogether.' 

"With malice toward none, with charity for all, 
with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the 



LINCOLN LANGUAGE 167 

right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, 
to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who 
shall have borne the battle and for his widow and or- 
phans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just 
and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all na- 
tions." 

After Lincoln had made his famous Cooper Institute 
speech in February, 1860, which is recorded and ana- 
lyzed in another chapter, he made a trip through 
New England. 

Holland, gives us some valuable suggestions as to 
his reception by the people of New Egnland as fol- 
lows: 

''Some very interesting reminiscences of this trip 
were communicated to the public in 1864, by Rev. 
John P. Gulliver of Norwich, who listened to his ad- 
dress in that city. On the morning following the speech, 
he met Mr, Lincoln upon a train of cars, and entered 
into conversation with him. In speaking of his speech, 
Mr. Gulliver remarked to Mr. Lincoln that he thought 
it the most remarkable one he ever heard. 'Are you 
sincere in what you say?' inquired Mr. Lincoln. 'I 
mean every word of it,' replied the minister. 'Indeed, 
sir,' he continued, 'I learned more of the art of public 
speaking last evening than I could from a whole com'se 
of lectiu-es on rhetoric' Then Mr. Lincoln informed 
him of 'a most extraordinary circumstance' that oc- 
curred at New Haven a few days previously. A pro- 
fessor of rhetoric in Yale College, he had been told, 
came to hear him, took notes of his speech, and gave 
a lecture on it to his class the following day; and, not 
satisfied with that, followed him to Meriden the next 
evening and heard him again for the same purpose. 
All this seemed to Mr. Lincoln to be 'very extraor- 
dinary.' He had been sufficiently astonished by his 



168 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

success at the West, but he had no expectation of any 
marked success at the East, particularly among lit- 
erary and learned men. 'Now,' said Mr. Lincoln, 'I 
should like very much to know what it was in my speech 
which you thought so remarkable, and which interested 
my friend the professor so much?' Mr. Gulliver's 
answer was: 'The clearness of your statements, the 
unanswerable style of your reasoning, and, especially, 
your illustrations, which were romance and pathos 
and fun and logic all welded together.' 

"After Mr. Gulliver had fully satisfied his curiosity 
by a further exposition of the pohtician's peculiar 
power, Mr. Lincoln said, 'I am much obliged to you 
for this. I have been wishing for a long time to find 
some one who would make this analysis for me. It 
throws Ught on a subject which has been dark to me. 
I can understand very readily how such a power as 
you have ascribed to me will account for the effect 
which seems to be produced by my speeches. I hope 
you have not been too flattering in your estimate. 
Certainly I have had a most wonderful success for a 
man of my hmited education.' " 

I want to add one more letter of the many that 
might with almost equal propriety be included in this 
chapter, which reveals in a most intimate and pecuharly 
human way, the great heart of this great President; — 
his letter to General Hooker upon his appointment 
in command of the Army of the Potomac in the place 
of General Burnside, who had been reUeved after the 
battle of Fredericksburg: 

"General: I have placed you at the head of the 
Army of the Potomac. Of course I have done this 
upon what appear to me to be sufficient reasons, and 
yet I think it best for you to know that there are some 



LINCOLN LANGUAGE 169 

things in regard to which I am not quite satisfied with 
you. I beUeve you to be a brave and skillful soldier, 
which of course I like. I also believe you do not mix 
politics with your profession, in which you are right. 
You have confidence in yourself, which is a valuable 
if not indispensable quality. You are ambitious, which, 
within reasonable bounds, does good rather than harm; 
but I think that during General Burnside's command 
of the army you have taken counsel of your ambition 
and thwarted him as much as you could, in which you 
did a great wrong to the country, and to a most meri- 
torious and honorable brother officer. I have heard, 
in such a way as to beheve it, of your recently saying 
that both the army and the government needed a dic- 
tator. Of course it was not for this, but in spite of it, 
that I have given you the command. Only those gen- 
erals who gain successes can set up dictators. What 
I now ask of you is mihtary success, and I will risk 
the dictatorship. The government will support you 
to the utmost of its ability, which is neither more nor 
less than it has done and will do for all commanders. 
I much fear that the spirit which you have aided to 
infuse into the army, of criticising their commander 
and withliolding confidence from him, will now turn 
upon you. I shall assist you as far as I can to put it 
down. Neither you nor Napoleon, if he were aUve 
again, could get any good out of an army while such 
a spirit prevails in it; and now beware of rashness. 
Beware of rashness, and give us victories. Yours very 
truly, 

''A. Lincoln." 

We are told of the effect on Hooker in these words: 

''He finished reading it, almost with tears in his 

eyes; and as he folded it and put it back in the breast 



170 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

of his coat, he said, 'That is just such a letter as a father 
might write to a son. It is a beautiful letter, and al- 
though I think he was harder on me than I deserved, 
I will say that I love the man who wrote it.' " 

What was it about his speech that gave it such per- 
suasive power and such poUtical permanence? This 
concrete man was always thinking about concrete 
things, as to their concrete properties, and as to con- 
crete persons with their concrete rights. He did not 
deal with metaphysical abstractions nor with the 
beauties of transcendentahsm. He had lived the 
varied life of a common humanity, from its lowest 
depths to its loftiest heights. He knew human poverty 
and privation, human suffering and service, and when 
his country called, as Cincinnatus left the plough, so 
he left the law office to which he had been jealously 
wedded for some years, and espoused humanity's cause 
for liberty, entire liberty, eternal liberty, the liberty 
of all men everywhere. 

His oratory was not the oratory of expediency, or 
opportunism; it was the oratory of the eternal reason 
and right of things. What he said more than a half- 
century ago was entirely and eternally reasonable and 
right when he said it, and therefore it is entirely and 
eternally reasonable and right to-day. 

He was the universal representative man — hu- 
manity's man, unbounded by time or territory, ser- 
vice or station. 

Natiu-e has endowed many orators with some won- 
derful prepossession, such as an attractive physique, 
a rich voice, or exceptional dramatic power. He had 
none of these. He was awkward, ungainly, and had 
a squeaky, falsetto voice. These disadvantages, how- 
ever, were more than compensated by the humanities 



LINCOLN LANGUAGE 171 

of his head and heart, put in such plain premises, hnk 
on link, in such simple, sincere speech that it was like 
one human heart speaking to a multitude of human 
hearts in their own language and life. 

When we remember how much of controversy in 
this old world of ours arises out of uncertain, indefinite, 
double-meaning words, not unfrequently resulting in 
bitterness and jealousy in our community life, when 
we remember how much of htigation, from the lowest 
to the highest courts of the land, arises out of uncer- 
tain, inappropriate, ambiguous words and phrases in 
our constitutions, our statutes, our contracts, the 
importance of the Lincoln model for written or spoken 
speech should be most obvious to all of us. 

No other man of his own time has demonstrated 
himself to be such an accurate and reliable interpreter 
of human nature and human needs as this Man of 
Illinois. 



CHAPTER XIII 
LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 

Lincoln thought in the terms of democracy; spoke 
its speech; lived its Ufe; and died triumphant in its 
defense, 

Lincoln was his own pedagogue and pupil in govern- 
ment. He not only studied the trunk and the limbs, 
but the root and all its branches. His like has not 
yet been recorded in biography for thoroughness and 
efficiency in research and study of foundation facts 
and first principles. 

I remember a sentence in one of my old text-books 
which reads : 

''I know a lot of things, but nothing thoroughly; 
I remember a mass of things but nothing distinctly." 

How this sentence applies to many of us ! 

What Lincoln knew he knew "thoroughly." What 
he remembered, he remembered ''distinctly," and 
he knew and remembered vitally enough so that he 
could use and did use that knowledge in a practical 
way. 

The Bible gave him the ethical side of government, 
the Declaration of Independence, Constitution of the 
United States, Constitution of the State of Indiana, 
the Ordinance of 1787, as contained in Turnham's now 
famous volume of Revised Statutes of Indiana, gave 
him the pohtical side of government. 

Doubtless, also he learned much from some history 
of the United States which early came into his pos- 

172 



LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 173 

session, and also Weems's ''Life of Washington," to- 
gether with other biographies and histories. 

His intelUgent and enthusiastic interest in the sub- 
ject of government cropped out at a very early age, 
considering his handicaps. Several of his rehable biog- 
raphers say that when he was but seventeen years of 
age he wrote a composition on the ''American Govern- 
ment," giving particular attention to "the necessity 
of preserving the Constitution and perpetuating the 
Union." 

It is almost prophetic, weirdly so, that this boy at 
seventeen should be writing an essay on "perpetuat- 
ing the Union," when thirty-five years later he was to 
be the great central figure in the conduct of the Civil 
War for the purpose of "perpetuating the Union." 

Lincoln's fife, as boy and youth, is a splendid illus- 
tration of the old doctrine of evolution announced in 
Holy Writ, "first the blade, then the ear, after that 
the full corn in the ear." 

His studies and views continued their development 
until we have a masterpiece in the address he deUvered 
before the Lyceum of Springfield in January, 1837. 

It reads, as many of Lincoln's addresses read, as if 
they were made not for then, but for now. At that 
time he was twenty-eight years of age. His English 
style was not quite as simple, or as smooth as it was 
in later years, but it had all the Lincoln essentials in 
it, his simple statement of a given situation, his 
demonstration of its being wrong or right, and his sug- 
gestion and demonstration of the remedy. His clear 
declaration against mobs and riots and other lawless- 
ness are matters of intense interest to the American 
public to-day. 

The "Mob" of 1837 seems quite the same as the 



174 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

"Mob" of 1917. The passing of eighty years has not 
changed human nature nor the danger of lawlessness 
to our institutions. 

Among other things he said: 

''I hope I am not over wary; but if I am not there 
is even now something of ill omen amongst us. I mean 
the increasing disregard for law which pervades the 
country — the growing disposition to substitute the 
wild and furious passions in lieu of the sober judgment 
of courts, and the worse than savage mobs for the exec- 
utive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully 
fearful in any community; and that it now exists in 
ours, though grating to our feeUngs to admit, it would 
be a violation of truth and an insult to our intelligence 
to deny. Accounts of outrages committed by mobs 
form the e very-day news of the times. They have 
pervaded the country from New England to Louisiana; 
they are neither peculiar to the eternal snows of the 
former nor the burning suns of the latter; they are 
not the creature of climate, neither are they confined 
to the slaveholding or the non-slaveholding States. 
Alike they spring up among the pleasure-hunting 
masters of Southern slaves, and the order-loving citizens 
of the land of steady habits. Whatever then their 
cause may be, it is common to the whole country. 

''It would be tedious as well as useless to recount 
the horrors of all of them. Those happening in the 
State of Mississippi and at St. Louis are perhaps the 
most dangerous in example and revolting to humanity. 
In the Mississippi case they first commenced by hang- 
ing the regular gamblers — a set of men certainly not 
following for a Uvelihood a very useful or very honest 
occupation, but one which, so far from being forbidden 
by the laws, was actually licensed by an act of the 



LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 175 

Legislature passed but a single year before. Next, 
negroes suspected of conspiring to raise an insurrection 
were caught up and hanged in all parts of the State; 
then, white men supposed to be leagued with the 
negroes; and finally, strangers from neighboring states, 
going thither on business, were in many instances sub- 
jected to the same fate. Thus went on this process 
of hanging, from gamblers to negroes, from negroes to 
white citizens, and from these to strangers, till dead 
men were seen hterally dangling from the boughs of 
trees upon every roadside, and in numbers almost 
sufficient to rival the native Spanish moss of the coun- 
try as a drapery of the forest. 

''Turn, then, to that horror-striking scene at St. 
Louis. A single victim only was sacrificed there. This 
story is very short, and is perhaps the most highly 
tragic of anything of its length that has ever been wit- 
nessed in real life. A mulatto man by the name of 
Mcintosh was seized in the street, dragged to the 
suburbs of the city, chained to a tree, and actually 
burned to death ; and all within a single hour from the 
time he had been a freeman attending to his own busi- 
ness and at peace with the world. 

"Such are the effects of mob law, and such are the 
scenes becoming more and more frequent in this land 
so lately famed for love of law and order, and the stories 
of which have even now grown too familiar to attract 
anything more than an idle remark. 

''But you are perhaps ready to ask, 'What has this to 
do with the perpetuation of our political institutions?' 
I answer, 'It has much to do with it.' Its direct con- 
sequences are, comparatively speaking, but a small 
evil, and much of its danger consists in the proneness 
of our minds to regard its direct as its only con- 



176 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

sequences. Abstractly considered, the hanging of the 
gamblers at Vicksburg was of but little consequence. 
They constitute a portion of population that is worse 
than useless in any community; and their death, if 
no pernicious example be set by it, is never matter of 
reasonable regret with any one. If they were annually 
swept from the stage of existence by the plague of 
smallpox, honest men would perhaps be much profited 
by the operation. Similar, too, is the correct reasoning 
in regard to the burning of the negro at St. Louis. He 
had forfeited his life by the perpetration of an out- 
rageous murder upon one of the most worthy and re- 
spectable citizens of the city, and had he not died as 
he did, he must have died by the sentence of the law 
in a very short time afterward. As to him alone, it 
was as well the way it was as it could otherwise have 
been. But the example in either case was fearful. 
When men take it in their heads to-day to hang 
gamblers or burn murderers, they should recollect that 
in the confusion usually attending such transactions 
they will be as likely to hang or burn some one who is 
neither a gambler nor a murderer as one who is, and 
that, acting upon the example they set, the mob of 
to-morrow may, and probably will, hang or burn some 
of them by the very same mistake. And not only so; 
the innocent, those who have ever set their faces against 
violations of law in every shape, ahke with the guilty 
fall victims to the ravages of mob law; and thus it 
goes up, step by step, till all the walls erected for the 
defense of the persons and property of individuals are 
trodden down and disregarded. But all this, even, is 
not the full extent of the evil. By such examples, by 
instances of the perpetrators of such acts going un- 
pimished, the lawless in spirit are encoiu*aged to be- 



LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 177 

come lawless in practice; and having been used to no 
restraint but dread of punishment, they thus become 
absolutely unrestrained. Having ever regarded govern- 
ment as their deadhest bane, they make a jubilee of 
the suspension of its operations, and pray for nothing 
so much as its total annihilation. While, on the other 
hand, good men, men who love tranquillity, who desire 
to abide by the laws and enjoy their benefits, who would 
gladly spill their blood in the defense of their country, 
seeing their property destroyed, their families insulted, 
and their lives endangered, their persons injured, and 
seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for 
the better, become tired of and disgusted with a govern- 
ment that offers them no protection, and are not much 
averse to a change in which they imagine they have 
nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this 
mobocratic spirit which all must admit is now abroad 
in the land, the strongest bulwark of any government, 
and particularly of those constituted like ours, may 
effectually be broken down and destroyed — I mean 
the attachment of the people. Whenever this effect 
shall be produced among us; whenever the vicious 
portion of population shall be permitted to gather in 
bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, 
ravage and rob provision-stores, throw printing-presses 
into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious 
persons at pleasure and with impunity, depend on it, 
this government cannot last. By such things the feel- 
ings of the best citizens will become more or less 
alienated from it, and thus it will be left without 
friends, or with too few, and those few too weak to 
make their friendship effectual. At such a time, and 
under such circumstances, men of sufficient talent, 
and ambition will not be wanting to seize the oppor- 



178 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

tunity, strike the blow, and overturn that fair fabric 
which for the last half century has been the fondest 
hope of the lovers of freedom throughout the world. 

''I know the American people are much attached 
to their government; I know they would suffer much 
for its sake; I know they would endure evils long and 
patiently before they would ever think of exchanging 
it for another — yet, notwithstanding all this, if the 
laws be continually despised and disregarded, if their 
rights to be secure in their persons and property are 
held by no better tenure than the caprice of a mob, 
the alienation of their affections from the government 
is the natural consequence; and to that, sooner or 
later, it must come. 

''Here, then is one point at which danger may be 
expected. 

"The question recurs, 'How shall we fortify against 
it ? ' The answer is simple. Let every American, every 
lover of liberty, every well-wisher to his posterity swear 
by the blood of the Revolution never to violate in the 
least particular the laws of the country, and never to 
tolerate their violation by others. As the patriots of 
seventy-six did to the support of the Declaration of 
Independence, so to the support of the Constitution 
and laws let every American pledge his hfe, his property, 
and his sacred honor — let every man remember that 
to violate the law is to trample on the blood of his 
father, and to tear the charter of his own and his chil- 
dren's liberty. Let reverence for the laws be breathed 
by every American mother to the lisping babe that 
prattles on her lap ; let it be taught in schools, in semi- 
naries, and in colleges; let it be written in primers, 
spelling-books, and in almanacs; let it be preached 
from the pulpit, proclaimed in legislative halls, and 



LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 179 

enforced in courts of justice. And, in short, let it be- 
come the pohtical rehgion of the nation; and let the 
old and the young, the rich and the poor, the grave 
and the gay of all sexes and tongues and colors and 
conditions, sacrifice unceasingly upon its altars. 

''While ever a state of feehng such as this shall uni- 
versally or even very generally prevail throughout the 
nation, vain will be every effort, and fruitless every 
attempt, to subvert our national freedom. 

"When I so pressingly urge a strict observance of 
all the laws, let me not be understood as saying there 
are no bad laws, or that grievances may not arise for 
the redress of which no legal provisions have been 
made. I mean to say no such thing. But I do mean 
to say that although bad laws, if they exist, should 
be repealed as soon as possible, still, while they con- 
tinue in force, for the sake of example they should be 
rehgiously observed. So also in unprovided cases. If 
such arise, let proper legal provisions be made for them 
with the least possible delay, but till then let them, 
if not too intolerable, be borne with. 

"There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress 
by mob law. In any case that may arise, as, for in- 
stance, the promulgation of abolitionism, one of two 
positions is necessarily true — that is, the thing is right 
within itself, and therefore deserves the protection of 
all law and all good citizens, or it is wrong, and there- 
fore proper to be prohibited by legal enactments; and 
in neither case is the interposition of mob law either 
necessary, justifiable, or excusable. 

"But those histories (scenes of American Revolution) 
are gone. They can be read no more forever. They 
were a fortress of strength; but what invading foeman 



180 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

could never do, the silent artillery of time has done — 
the levelling of its walls. They are gone. They were 
a forest of giant oaks; but the all-resistless hurricane 
has swept over them, and left only here and there a 
lonely trunk, despoiled of its verdure, shorn of its 
foliage, unshading and unshaded, to murmur in a few 
more gentle breezes, and to combat with its mutilated 
limbs a few more ruder storms, then to sink and be 
no more. 

"They were pillars of the temple of hberty; and now 
that they have crumbled away that temple must fall 
unless we, their descendants, supply their places with 
other pillars, hewn from the solid quarry of sober 
reason. Passion has helped us, but can do so no more. 
It will in future be our enemy. Reason — cold, calcu- 
lating, unimpassioned reason — ^must furnish all the 
materials for our future support and defense. Let 
those materials be molded into general intelUgence, 
sound morality, and, in particular, a reverence for the 
Constitution and laws; and that we improved to the 
last, that we remained free to the last, that we revered 
his name to the last, that during his long sleep we per- 
mitted no hostile foot to pass over or desecrate his 
resting-place, shall be that which to learn the last 
trump shall awaken our Washington. 

''Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, 
as the rock of its basis; and as truly as has been said 
of the only greater institution, 'the gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it.'" 

We have seen this prophet at seventeen writing 
about "the necessity of preserving our Constitution 
and perpetuating the Union"; at twenty-eight we hear 
him speaking on: 

"Whenever the vicious portion of population shall 



LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 181 

be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thou- 
sands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision- 
stores, throw printing-presses into rivers, shoot editors, 
and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure and 
with impunity, depend on it, this government cannot 
last." 

Again he says : 

"'How shall we fortify against it?' The answer is 
simple. Let every American, every lover of liberty, 
every well-wisher to his posterity swear by the blood 
of the Revolution never to violate in the least particu- 
lar the laws of the country, and never to tolerate their 
violation by others. As the patriots of seventy-six did 
to the support of the Declaration of Independence, so 
to the support of the Constitution and laws let every 
American pledge his life, his property, and his sacred 
honor — let every man remember that to violate the 
law is to trample on the blood of his father, and to 
tear the charter of his own and his children's liberty. 
Let reverence for the laws be breathed by every Ameri- 
can mother to the hsping babe that prattles on her lap; 
let it be taught in schools, in seminaries, and in col- 
leges; let it be written in primers, spelling-books, and 
in almanacs; let it be preached from the pulpit, pro- 
claimed in legislative halls, and enforced in courts of 
justice." 

Again he says : 

''There is no grievance that is a fit object of redress 
by mob law." 

These pohtical proverbs, primary principles of effi- 
cient government, are as applicable to-day as they were 
in 1837, when Lincoln uttered them. 

This speech may serve as a model for young America 
in the preparation of a composition or oration upon 



182 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

law and order, a subject of unusual interest and im- 
portance in this twentieth century, and at no time 
more than to-day. 

Without law and order all nature must return to 
chaos and all government to anarchy. There is no 
alternative. 

We need more of leadership to-day along these Lin- 
coln Unes of law and order; more of the accomplish- 
ment of needful change in our social and industrial life, 
but through the regular and orderly constitutional or 
statutory channels. 

The deserved dissolution and death of the Whig 
party in the early fifties provided the occasion and 
necessity for the organization of the new Republican 
party. 

In this pohtical organization there were sundry and 
divers elements, varying from those that were exceed- 
ingly conservative to those that were extremely radical. 

Abolitionism, as it was then known, and with which 
Herndon, Lincoln's partner, was more or less identi- 
fied, was reaching out to control the new party. Hern- 
don himself says: 

"We recommended the employment of any means, 
however desperate, to promote and defend the cause 
of freedom. At one of these meetings Lincoln was 
called on for a speech. He responded to the request, 
counselling moderation and less bitterness in dealing 
with the situation before us. We were belligerent in 
tone, and clearly out of patience with the Government. 
Lincoln opposed the notion of coercive measures with 
the possibility of resulting bloodshed, advising us to 
eschew resort to the bullet. 'You can better succeed,' 
he declared, 'with the ballot. You can peaceably then 
redeem the Government and preserve the liberties of 



LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 183 

mankind through your votes and voice and moral in- 
fluence. . . . Let there be peace. Revolutionize 
through the ballot box, and restore the Government 
once more to the affections and hearts of men by mak- 
ing it express, as it was intended to do, the highest 
spirit of justice and liberty. Your attempt, if there 
be such, to resist the laws of Kansas by force is criminal 
and wicked; and all your feeble attempts will be fol- 
lies and end in bringing sorrow on your heads and ruin 
the cause you would freely die to preserve !'" 

A sentiment more sound and salutary in the social, 
industrial, and pohtical councils of the nation to-day 
could scarcely be found. 

The violent outbreaks in that day, 1855, were not 
unlike those that we find to-day in the unrest, disorder, 
and violence through I. W. W., the use of bomb and 
dynamite in labor strikes, and the picketing of the 
White House by overzealous suffragists. 

It would be impossible to exaggerate the importance 
of the training and discipline afforded Lincoln by his 
service in the legislature of Illinois for four terms, his 
service as a lawj^er at a most active and able bar for 
twenty-four years, his service in Congress for one term, 
all the while giving special study from the point of 
personal predilection to the subject of government, as 
a case of first impression and as a study in original 
philosophy. His great speeches teem with the basic 
principles of constitutional government as declared in 
the handiwork of Thomas Jefferson, the Declaration of 
Independence. 

To most of us government is a sort of vague abstrac- 
tion. We lack definite ideas and clearness of concep- 
tion as to just what government is. I think of it as 
the old gi'ist-mill along the httle river. As it took 



184 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

power to run that mill, so it takes power to run gov- 
ernment. It matters not whether the power be water 
power, electric power, or what-not, it still takes power 
to run the mill and grind the gi'ist. 

So in government. It may be government by ''con- 
sent of the governed," it may be government by a 
kaiser, king, or sultan, it may be government by oli- 
garchy or aristocracy of wealth, or royalty; but with 
us here, as sons and daughters of Uncle Sam, it is all 
boiled down to the proposition that ''all poUtical power 
is inherent in the people," and that the power of the 
American government is first, last, and all the time in 
the hands, heads, and hearts of our American citizens. 

We beheve that the aggregate judgment of all the 
people is better than the individual judgment of any 
one of the people. 

Now, this people's power furnishes the water or 
electricity, steam, or what-not to run the government 
machinery and operates upon the departments, the 
officers, and the general routine, all for what purpose? 
In short, what, after all, are the purposes of government. 

The constitutional fathers in 1787 made some gen- 
eralizations upon this subject in the preamble of the 
Constitution, which, however, has been held by the 
Supreme Court of the United States not to be any 
part of that document. 

The preamble reads: 

"We, the people, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquilhty, 
provide for the common defense, promote the general 
welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves 
and our posterity, do establish and ordain this con- 
stitution for the United States of America." 

"Glittering generalities" are too frequently only an- 



LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 185 

other name for political ''phantasmagoria." They 
vaguely cover such a vast field that in particular they 
cover nothing. 

Abraham Lincoln, in his own simple, strong speech, 
puts the purposes of our government into the following 
language : 

''This is essentially a people's contest. ... It is a 
struggle for maintaining in the world that form and 
substance of government whose leading object is to 
elevate the condition of men — to hft artificial weights 
from the shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pur- 
suits for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair 
chance in the race of fife. Yielding to partisan and 
temporary departure from necessity, this, after all, is 
the leading object of the government for whose exist- 
ence we contend," 

In my judgment this is the biggest and best con- 
ception of American democracy ever put into the 
EngHsh language, and it took the biggest and best 
democratic American of his own time or any other to 
put these paramount purposes in such plain, practical 
phrase. 

"To elevate the condition of men." 
"To lift artificial weights from the shoulders." 
"To clear the paths of laudable pursuits for all." 
"To afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance 
in the race of Ufe." 

These four phrases spell humanity, and Lincoln for- 
ever makes them the definition of our American democ- 
racy. 

In a word it means that with Lincoln, democracy 
was synonymous with humanity. He thought, he 
talked, he labored, and lived, — yes, he died, as the 
one, composite, universal, representative man. 



186 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

These words of Lincoln should be written in every 
public forum, in every school and college in the land. 
They should be familiar at every fireside and their 
substance and spirit should inspire and guide every 
public officer in the discharge of his public duties. 

In some strange way these immortal basic thoughts 
of Lincoln have been much overlooked. Of all his 
great sayings which future generations will treasure, 
at every human hearthstone and every forum for free- 
dom, these words, part of his official message to the 
Congress of the United States, will stand out among 
the most immortal of all his immortality. 

Lincoln always had an abiding faith in the general 
judgment of the common people. He once said: 

"Our government rests on public opinion. Who- 
ever can change public opinion can change the govern- 
ment practically just so much." 

In the first Lincoln-Douglas debate at Ottawa Lin- 
coln said: 

"In this and like communities, public sentiment is 
everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; 
without it nothing can succeed. Consequently, he 
who moulds public sentiment, goes deeper than he who 
enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes 
statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be 
executed." 

In his first inaugural address he used this language: 

"Why should there not be a patient confidence in 
the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any bet- 
ter or equal hope in the world ? . . . By the frame of 
the government under which we live, this same people 
have wisely given their public servants but little power 
for mischief, and have "udth equal wisdom provided for 
the return of that little to their own hands at very 



LINCOLN ON GOVERNMENT 187 

short intervals. While the people retain their virtue 
and vigilance, no administration, by any extreme 
wickedness or folly, can very seriously injure the gov- 
ernment in the short space of four years." 



CHAPTER XIV 
LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 

Much has been spoken and still more written as to 
Mr. Lincoln's position on slavery from the time of his 
boyhood to the day of his martyrdom. 

A review of what Lincoln himself has said on the 
matter, what Lincoln himself has done, and why he 
did it, would seem relevant here. 

Some of his biographers have earnestly attempted to 
give his childhood mind a bent against slavery due 
to parental inheritance, especially through the father, 
Thomas Lincoln. 

These biographers assign hatred of slavery as a 
reason for Thomas Lincoln's removal from the slave 
soil of Kentucky to the free soil of Indiana. 

Notwithstanding this highly creditable theory, it is 
wholly unsupported by fact. He moved, as many 
another man moved, because it looked better on the 
other side of the fence, in the next county, in the next 
State. 

It is altogether unlikely that any hatred of slavery 
in Kentucky would be silenced by the free soil of In- 
diana and Illinois, and we hear nothing of Thomas 
Lincoln either favorably for freedom or for his rising 
son during all his poUtical and legal contests. 

The first contact Lincoln had with slavery in the 
concrete, as agreed by a number of his more reliable 
biographers, was on a trip he made to New Orleans 
for Denton Offut. 

John Hanks, his cousin, and John Johnston, his 

188 



LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 189 

stepbrother, with Lincoln, constructed a boat and 
launched it within four weeks, for a trip down the 
Mississippi. After disposing of Offut's cargo at New 
Orleans they viewed the sights of the Crescent City, 
and Lincoln for the first time saw ''negroes in chains — 
whipped and scourged." 

The following account is given by Herndon in his 
life of Lincoln. 

"One morning in their rambles over the city the 
trio passed a slave auction. A vigorous and comely 
mulatto girl was being sold. She underwent a thor- 
ough examination at the hands of the bidders; they 
pinched her flesh and made her trot up and down the 
room like a horse, to show how she moved, and in 
order, as the auctioneer said, that 'bidders might sat- 
isfy themselves' whether the article they were offering 
to buy was sound or not. The whole thing was so 
revolting that Lincoln moved away from the scene 
with a deep feeling of 'unconquerable hate.' Bidding 
his companions follow hun he said, 'By God, boys, let's 
get away from this. If ever I get a chance to hit that 
thing (meaning slavery), I'll hit it hard.'" 

Herndon relates, the incident was given to him in 
1865 by John Hanks. Herndon also relates that he 
himself had heard Lincoln refer to the same incident 
himself. This is confirmed by several other biogra- 
phers. At this time Lincoln was twenty-two years of 
age. 

The next time slavery was brought to his attention 
was when he was a member of the State Legislature at 
Springfield, six years after his visit to New Orleans. 
The abohtionist had taken his westward way, and 
New England seed had settled in the soil of IlUnois. 
The majority of the State Legislature, however, greatly 



190 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

deprecated the agitation against slavery, and as ex- 
pressing such deprecation the following resolution 
was passed: 

"Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of 
Illinois: That we highly disapprove of the formation 
of Abolition societies and of the doctrines promulgated 
by them, 

''That the right of property in slaves is sacred to 
the slave-holding States by the Federal Constitution, 
and that they cannot be deprived of that right with- 
out their consent, 

''That the General Government cannot abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia against the con- 
sent of the citizens of said District, without a manifest 
breach of good faith, 

"That the Governor be requested to transmit to 
the States of Virginia, Alabama, Mississippi, New 
York, and Connecticut, a copy of the foregoing report 
and resolutions." 

Thereafter, Lincoln endeavored to marshal the 
minority in support of a resolution of protest against 
these pro-slavery resolutions. He was unable to find 
any one save Dan Stone to join him in presenting the 
minority resolutions. 

Lincoln's protest read as follows: 

"Resolutions upon the subject of domestic slavery 
having passed both branches of the General Assembly 
at its present session, the undersigned hereby protest 
against the passage of the same. 

"They believe that the institution of slavery is 
founded on both injustice and bad pohcy, but that 
the promulgation of abolition doctrines tends rather 
to increase than abate its evils. 



LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 191 

''They believe that the Congress of the United 
States has no power under the Constitution to inter- 
fere with the institution of slavery in the different 
States. 

''They believe that the Congress of the United 
States has the power under the Constitution to abolish 
slavery in the District of Columbia, but that the power 
ought not to be exercised unless at the request of the 
people of the District. 

"The difference between these opinions and those 
contained in the above resolutions is their reason for 
entering this protest. 

"Dan Stone, 
"A. Lincoln, 

"Representatives from the county of Sangamon." 

Holland speaks of Mr. Lincoln's record on the slav- 
ery question, while a member of Congress, as follows: 

"Mr. Lincoln carried into this session the anti- 
slavery record of an anti-slavery whig. He had voted 
forty-two times for the Wilmot Proviso, had stood 
firmly by John Quincy Adams and Joshua R. Giddings 
on the right of petition, and was recognized as a man 
who would do as much in opposition to slavery as his 
constitutional obhgations would permit him to do." 

It will be remembered that Lincoln himself had in- 
troduced the "Spot Resolutions," quoted in a previous 
chapter, and also had made a speech upon the "un- 
constitutional and unjustifiable" commencement of 
the Mexican War, which he believed to be simply an 
attempt for the further extension of slavery. But 
Lincoln had, as a congressman, taken an oath to sup- 
port the Constitution of the United States. 

To a man of Lincoln's high sense of honor and his 



192 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

conception of a conscientious constitutional duty, the 
taking of this oath was not a hght or trifling thing, and 
in his recognition of this obhgation he felt it his duty 
to protect the slaveholder in his constitutional rights, 
as well as the non-slaveholder in his constitutional 
rights. 

While engaged in the practice of law, he not unfre- 
quently was retained by the slave-owner to prosecute 
or defend an action in which the right of property in 
a slave was involved. A noted case was that in which 
he was employed by General Madison, of Bourbon 
County, Kentucky, who had brought five or six negroes 
into Coles County, Illinois, and worked them on a 
farm for two or three years. 

He presented simply the legal side of the case with- 
out sentiment or enthusiasm. The Supreme Court de- 
cided against him, but Lincoln believed that under the 
Constitution and the acts of Congress the slaveholder 
had an undoubted right to be protected as to his prop- 
erty in the slave. 

In his speech in Chicago, delivered July 10, 1858, 
Mr. Lincoln said: 

"I have said a hundred times, and I have now no 
inclination to take it back, that I believe there is no 
right, and ought to be no inchnation, in the people of 
the Free States to enter into the Slave States, and in- 
terfere with the question of slavery at all." 

Further on in that speech he says: 

"While we agree that, by the Constitution we as- 
sented to, in the States where it exists, we have no 
right to interfere with it, because it is in the Consti- 
tution; and we are by both duty and inclination to 
stick by that Constitution, in all its letter and spirit, 
from beginning to end." 



LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 193 

It was in this speech that he made apt answer to 
the charge made against him by Douglas that he 
favored an entire equahty between black and white, as 
follows : 

"1 protest, now and forever, against that counter- 
feit logic which presumes that because I did not want 
a negro woman for a slave, I do necessarily want her 
for a wife. My understanding is that I need not have 
her for either, but, as God made us separate, we can 
leave one another alone, and do one another much 
good thereby." 

In his first debate with Douglas at Ottawa, he quotes 
from his Peoria speech delivered four years before: 

''I think, and shall try to show that it (the repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise and the enactment of the 
Kansas and Nebraska Bill) is wrong, — wrong in its 
direct effect, letting slavery into Kansas and Nebraska, 
and wrong in its prospective principle, allowing it to 
spread to every other part of the wide world where 
men can be found incHned to take it. 

"This declared indifference, but, as I must think, 
covert real zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but 
hate. I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of 
slavery itself. I hate it because it deprives our repub- 
lican example of its just influence in the world, — enables 
the enemies of free institutions, with plausibiHty, to 
taunt us as hypocrites; causes the real friends of free- 
dom to doubt our sincerity, and especially because it 
forces so many really good men amongst ourselves into 
an open war with the very fundamental principles of 
civil liberty, — criticising the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence, and insisting that there is no right principle of 
action but self-interest. . . . 

"When they [the slaveholders] remind us of their 



194 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

constitutional rights, I acknowledge them, not grudg- 
ingly, but fully and fairly; and I would give them any 
legislation for the reclaiming of their fugitives which 
should not, in its stringency, be more likely to carry a 
free man into slavery, than our ordinary criminal laws 
are to hang an innocent one." 

This doctrine was expressed by him again and again 
in a number of speeches before the debates and through- 
out the debates. 

I know some will be surprised at Lincoln's position 
at this time, but I am quite sure that in the painting 
of this political portrait of him he would answer, much 
as Cromwell did to the great artist who was paint- 
ing his picture in oil. The artist suggested the elimi- 
nation of a wart on the great Cromwell's face. "No," 
said Cromwell, ''paint me as I am." 

In view of his position on the fugitive slave law Wen- 
dell Phillips often referred to Lincoln as the ''Slave 
Hound of Ilhnois," and was much opposed to his nom- 
ination for the presidency of the United States. 

Mr. Lincoln, after his election as President, stopped 
at Cincinnati on his way to Washington. In the 
Queen City he made a short speech in which he said, 
among other things: 

"You [Kentuckians] will want to know what we 
will do with you. We mean to treat you as near as 
we possibly can as Washington, Jefferson and Madison 
treated you. We mean to leave you alone and in no 
way to interfere with your institutions, to abide by all 
and every compromise of the Constitution." 

In the first inaugural address, March 4, 1861, Lin- 
coln said: 

"I do but quote from one of those speeches, when I 
declare that 'I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, 
to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states 



LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 195 

where it exists.' I believe I have no lawful right to 
do so; and I have no inclination to do so. Those who 
nominated and elected me did so with the full knowl- 
edge that I had made this, and made many similar 
declarations, and had never recanted them." 

And then he quotes one of the planks of the Repub- 
lican National platform as follows: 

"Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the 
rights of the states, and especially the right of each 
state to order and control its own domestic institutions 
according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential 
to that balance of power on which the perfection and 
endurance of our political fabric depend. ..." 

Lincoln further said: 

"There is much controversy about the dehvering 
up of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I 
now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as 
any other of its provisions: 

"'No person held to service or labor in one state 
under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, 
in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be 
discharged from such service or labor, but shall be de- 
livered up on claim of the party to whom such service 
or labor may be due.'" 

Commenting on this provision of the Constitution, 
Lincoln said in that same inaugural address: 

"It is scarcely questioned that this provision was 
intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of 
what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the 
lawgiver is the law. 

"All members of Congress swear their support to 
the whole Constitution — to this provision as well as 
any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves 
whose cases come within the terms of this clause ' shall 
be delivered up,' their oaths are unanimous." 



196 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Shortly after the opening of the great Civil War the 
agitation began in various quarters of the republic to 
emancipate the slaves. 

General Fremont's attitude upon this question in 
Missouri and General Hunter's in the South had very 
greatly embarrassed the President, and their orders of 
partial emancipation had to be reversed, which caused 
a fresh outbreak for emancipation in many sections of 
the country. 

Delegation after delegation called on the President 
urging emancipation. It is a well-known fact that 
Lincoln was all the while in favor of a gradual emanci- 
pation with compensation. Congress, however, and 
the South, also, was against his plan, and still the aboli- 
tion sentiment grew. 

It will be remembered that Horace Greeley, who for 
some years had been a thorn in the flesh of Mr. Lin- 
coln, finally came out in an article in the New York 
Tribune, then probably the most largely circulated and 
most influential newspaper in the United States, in 
which he very severely criticised, and even castigated, 
President Lincoln for his failure to act summarily in 
the emancipation of the slave. 

In the summer of 1862 Mr. Lincoln made the first 
draft of the Emancipation Proclamation, and that 
without consulting his Cabinet. 

It is worthy of suggestion here that that draft had 
been made before the letter to Greeley. 

About the 1st of August the Proclamation was 
submitted to a Cabinet meeting. It is needless to say 
that members of the Cabinet were much surprised. 

Holland, relates the circumstances as follows: 

"Mr. Lincoln had before him a document which 
he knew was to perpetuate his name to all futurity, — 



LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 197 

a document which involved the hberty of four miUions 
of human beings then Hving, and of untold millions 
then unborn, — which changed the policy of the govern- 
ment and the course and character of the war, — which 
revolutionized the social institutions of more than a 
third of the nation, — which brought all the govern- 
ments of Christendom into new relations to the re- 
beUion, and which involved Mr. Lincoln's recognition 
of the will of the Divine Ruler of the universe. It was 
the supreme moment of his Ufe." 

Numerous suggestions by way of changes were made, 
some as to one thing, and some as to another. Finally 
Seward said: 

"Mr. President, I approve of the proclamation, but 
I question the expediency of its issue at this juncture. 
The depression of the public mind consequent upon 
our repeated reverses is so great that I fear the effect 
of so important a step. It may be viewed as the last 
measure of an exhausted government — a cry for help 
— the government stretching forth its hands to 
Ethiopia, instead of Ethiopia stretching forth her 
hands to the government — our last shriek on the re- 
treat." 

Finally it was agreed, upon the suggestion of Seward, 
that the matter go over until a more favorable situa- 
tion as to the nation's prospect of victory. 

Then came the battle of Antietam, and while not 
a decisive victory, it was regarded as a repulse to the 
South. Lincoln immediately made his second draft, 
called a meeting of the Cabinet, and finally said to his 
confidential official family in a low and reverent tone: 
''I have promised my God that I will do it." 

Chase thereupon said: 

"Did I understand you correctly, Mr. President?" 



198 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Lincoln replied : 

"I made a solemn vow before God that, if General 
Lee should be driven back from Pennsylvania, I would 
crown the result by the declaration of freedom to the 
slaves." 

This Emancipation Proclamation is surely worthy 
of a place among these pages: 

"I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United 
States of America, and Commander-in-Chief of the 
army and navy thereof, do hereby proclaim and de- 
clare that hereafter, as heretofore, the war will be 
prosecuted for the object of practically restoring the 
constitutional relation between the United States and 
each of the states, and the people thereof, in which 
states that relation is or may be suspended or dis- 
turbed. 

"That is my purpose, upon the next meeting of 
Congress, to again recommend the adoption of a prac- 
tical measure tendering pecuniary aid to the free ac- 
ceptance or rejection of all slave states so-called, the 
people whereof may not then be in rebellion against 
the United States, and which states may then have 
voluntarily adopted, or thereafter may voluntarily 
adopt, immediate or gradual abolishment of slavery 
within their respective Hmits; and that the efTort to 
colonize persons of African descent, with their consent, 
upon this continent or elsewhere, with the previously 
obtained consent of the governments existing there, 
will be continued. 

''That on the first day of January, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, 
all persons held as slaves within any state, or desig- 
nated part of a state, the people whereof shall then 



LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 199 

be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, 
thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive 
Government of the United States, including the mih- 
tary and naval authority thereof, will recognize and 
maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no 
act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in 
any efforts they may make for their actual freedom. 

"That the Executive will, on the first day of January 
aforesaid, by proclamation, designate the states and 
parts of states, if any, in which the people thereof re- 
spectively shall then be in rebellion against the United 
States ; and the fact that any state, or the people there- 
of, shall on that day be in good faith represented in 
the Congress of the United States, by members chosen 
thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified 
voters of such state shall have participated, shall, in 
the absence of strong countervaihng testimony, be 
deemed conclusive evidence that such state, and the 
people thereof, are not then in rebelhon against the 
United States. 

''That attention is hereby called to an act of Con- 
gress entitled 'An Act to make an additional Article 
of War,' approved March 13th, 1862, and which act 
is in the words and figures following: 

'"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the United States of America in Congress 
assembled, That hereafter the following shall be pro- 
mulgated as an additional article of war for the govern- 
ment of the army of the United States, and shall be 
obeyed and observed as such: 

" 'Article — All officers or persons in the military 
or naval service of the United States are prohibited 
from employing any of the forces under their respec- 
tive commands for the purpose of returning fugitives 



200 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

from service or labor who may have escaped from any 
persons to whom such service or labor is claimed to 
be due, and any officer who shall be found guilty by 
a court-martial of violating this article shall be dis- 
missed from the service.' 

'' 'Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That this act 
shall take effect from and after its passage.' 

''Also, to the ninth and tenth sections of an act en- 
titled 'An Act to suppress Insurrection, to punish 
Treason and Rebelhon, to seize and confiscate Property 
of Rebels, and for other purposes,' approved July 16th, 
1862, and which sections are in the words and figures 
following : 

" 'Sec. 9. And be it further enacted, That all slaves 
of persons who shall hereafter be engaged in rebelhon 
against the government of the United States, or who 
shall in any way give aid or comfort thereto, escaping 
from such persons and taking refuge within the Unes 
of the army ; and all slaves captured from such persons, 
or deserted by them, and coming under the control of 
the government of the United States; and all slaves 
of such persons found on (or) being within any place 
occupied by rebel forces and afterwards occupied by 
forces of the United States, shall be deemed captives 
of war, and shall be forever free of their servitude, 
and not again held as slaves. 

" 'Sec. 10. And be it further enacted, That 
no slave escaping into any state, territory, or the Dis- 
trict of Columbia, from any other state, shall be de- 
livered up, or in any w^ay impeded or hindered of his 
liberty, except for crime, or some offense against the 
laws, unless the person claiming said fugitive shall 
first make oath that the person to whom the labor or 
service of such fugitive is alleged to be due is his law- 



LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 201 

ful owner, and has not borne arms against the United 
States in the present rebeUion, nor in any way given 
aid and comfort thereto; and no person engaged in 
the miUtary or naval service of the United States shall, 
under any pretense whatever, assume to decide on 
the validity of the claim of any person to the service 
or labor of any other person, or surrender up any such 
person to the claimant, on pain of being dismissed 
from the service.' " 

''And I do hereby enjoin upon and order all persons 
engaged in the military and naval service of the United 
States to observe, obey, and enforce, within their re- 
spective spheres of service, the act and sections above 
recited. 

"And the Executive will in due time recommend 
that all citizens of the United States who shall have 
remained loyal thereto throughout the rebelUon, shall 
(upon the restoration of the constitutional relation be- 
tween the United States and their respective states and 
people, if that relation shall have been suspended or 
disturbed) be compensated for all losses by acts of the 
United States, including the loss of slaves, 

"In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, 
and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 
"Done at the city of Washington, this tenth day 
of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
(l. s.) eight hundred and sixty-two, and of the Inde- 
pendence of the United States the eighty- 
seventh. 

"Abraham Lincoln. 
"By the President: 
"Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State." 

Subsequent to this date, in April, 1864, Lincoln in a 
personal letter to Mr. Hodges of Frankfort, Kentucky, 



202 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

gave his course of reasoning preliminary to the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation, as follows: 

"I did understand, however, that very oath to pre- 
serve the Constitution to the best of my ability, im- 
posed upon me the duty of preserving, by every indis- 
pensable means, that government — that nation of 
which that Constitution was the organic law. Was it 
possible to lose the nation and yet preserve the Con- 
stitution? By general law, Ufe and limb must be pro- 
tected; yet often a hmb must be amputated to save a 
life, but a life is never wisely given to save a limb. I 
felt that measures, otherwise unconstitutional, might 
become lawful by becoming indispensable to the pres- 
ervation of the Constitution through the preservation 
of the nation. Right or wrong, I assumed this ground, 
and now avow it. I could not feel that, to the best 
of my ability, I had even tried to preserve the Consti- 
tution, if, to preserve slavery, or any minor matter, I 
should permit the wreck of government, country, and 
Constitution altogether. When, early in the war. Gen- 
eral Fremont attempted mihtary emancipation, I for- 
bade it, because I did not then think it an indispensable 
necessity. When, a little later. General Cameron, then 
Secretary of War, suggested the arming of the blacks, I 
objected, because I did not yet think it an indispensa- 
ble necessity. When still later General Hunter at- 
tempted mihtary emancipation, I again forbade it, be- 
cause I did not yet think the indispensable necessity 
had come. When, in March and May and July, 1862, 
I made earnest and successive appeals to the border 
states to favor compensated emancipation, I beheved 
the indispensable necessity for mihtary emancipation 
and arming the blacks would come, unless averted by 
that measure. They dechned the proposition; and I 



LINCOLN ON SLAVERY 203 

was, in my best judgment, driven to the alternative of 
either smrendering the Union, and with it the Consti- 
tution, or of lading strong hand upon the colored ele- 
ment. I chose the latter." 

A few days after the Proclamation was issued a large 
delegation appeared at the White House, and the 
President was called upon for a short address. In ref- 
erence to the Proclamation, he said: 

"What I did, I did after a very full deliberation, and 
under a heavy and solemn sense of responsibility. I 
can only trust in God I have made no mistake." 

Two years thereafter he said: 

"As affairs have turned, it is the central act of my 
administration, and the great event of the nineteenth 
century." 

The final and formal act of Emancipation did not 
take place until the 1st of January, 1863. One para- 
graph of that is so concisely explanatory of the whole 
Proclamation that it should be quoted: 

"And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act 
of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon mili- 
tary necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of 
mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God." 

After Lincoln's re-election in November, 1864, he took 
up for the second time the matter of a new amendment 
to the Federal Constitution to abolish slavery through- 
out the nation. 

He always felt that his own Emancipation Proclama- 
tion was largely a mihtary measure and that a number 
of very serious and perplexing questions might arise 
under it. Therefore, in order to save all these and 
guarantee forever to the black man his new freedom, 
Lincoln urged upon Congress the passage of the Thir- 
teenth Amendment in its present form to be submitted 



204 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

to the States of the Union for their adoption. This 
amendment finally passed Congress the last of January, 
1865. It was the crowning work of the Lincoln Eman- 
cipation. 



CHAPTER XV 

LINCOLN'S INTERPRETATION OF THE 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

If America had done nothing else than to give the 
world two such apostles of democracy as Thomas Jef- 
ferson and Abraham Lincoln, she would have immor- 
talized herself for all coming ages. 

As Jefferson was the most distinguished author of 
the Declaration of Independence, so Lincoln has proven 
its most distinguished interpreter. 

So far as pohtical discussion in the press and public 
forum was concerned, the Declaration of Independence 
had very largely gone into eclipse after the surrender 
of Yorktown in 1781. The men who framed the Dec- 
laration of Independence did not frame the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. There was not a single line 
of the former in the latter. Save here and there a soli- 
tary voice crjdng in the wilderness, that Declaration of 
Independence and its immortal principles of personal 
and pohtical hberty was nothing but a memory. 

Indeed, in a large section of the country to refer to 
it was, to say the least, lese-majeste, and it remained 
the practical, patriotic task of Lincoln to resurrect the 
principles of the Declaration of Independence and to 
challenge the advancing hosts of slavery to the doc- 
trines of Jefferson as announced and adopted in that 
Declaration. 

What Aristotle was to his great teacher, Plato, Lin- 
coln was to his great teacher, Jefferson, and it may be 

205 



206 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

observed here, for it is an historical fact, that Abraham 
Lincoln has quoted Jefferson more favorably and fre- 
quently than he has quoted all other American states- 
men combined. 

It would be impossible, as it would be inadvisable, 
to give all the references Lincoln has made to the doc- 
trines of Jefferson in or out of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. But a few references will be most oppor- 
tune for this chapter and this century. 

Stephen A. Douglas was in 1857 the greatest political 
leader of the Democratic party, that had been in con- 
trol of the national government in all its councils, save 
a few brief and irregular intervals, since the days of 
George Washington. 

Douglas, known as the "Little Giant" of Illinois, 
was a good lawyer, a great orator, and was looked for- 
ward to as the candidate of his party for the presidency 
of the United States. 

He made a speech, upon invitation of the federal 
grand jury of Springfield, Illinois, in 1857, in which 
he said, among other things, that ''all men are created 
equal," meant only that ''British subjects on this con- 
tinent were equal to British subjects born and residing 
in Great Britain." 

The speech was concededly a very able one and 
aroused wide comment throughout Ilhnois. A num- 
ber of Lincoln's friends at once appealed to him to 
answer that speech. Lincoln accepted the invitation, 
and made what was probably one of the strongest and 
soundest poHtical arguments of his life. In the course 
of his address he used this language as the fair and 
sensible interpretation of the Jeffersonian proposition 
that "all men are created equal": 

"I think the authors of that notable instrument 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 207 

intended to include all men; but they did not intend 
to declare all men equal in all respects. They did not 
mean to say all were equal in color, size, intellect, moral 
developments, or social capacity. They defined with 
tolerable distinctness in what respects they did con- 
sider all men equal — equal in certain inalienable rights, 
among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happi- 
ness. This they said and this they meant. They did 
not mean to assert the obvious untruth that all were 
then actually enjoying that equality, nor yet that they 
were about to confer it upon them. In fact, they had 
no power to confer such a boon. They meant simply 
to declare the right, so that the enforcement of it might 
follow as fast as circumstances should permit. They 
meant to set up a standard maxim for free society, 
which should be familiar to all and revered by all; 
constantly looked to, constantly labored for, and, 
even though never perfectly attained, constantly ap- 
proximated, and thereby constantly spreading and 
deepening its influence, and augmenting the happiness 
and value of life to all people of all colors every- 
where." 

One year thereafter, on August 12, 1858, and also 
before the Douglas debates, Lincoln made the speech 
at Beardstown, Ilhnois, in which he recurs to the same 
matter but at somewhat greater length. The report 
of this speech was written by Mr. Horace White of 
the Chicago Tribune: 

"These by their representatives in old Independence 
Hall said to the whole race of men: 'We hold these 
truths to be self-evident: that all men are created 
equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with 
certain inalienable rights: that among these are life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' This was their 



208 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

majestic interpretation of the economy of the universe. 
This was their lofty, and wise, and noble understanding 
of the justice of the Creator to his creatures — yes, 
gentlemen, to all his creatiu-es, to the whole great family 
of man. In their enlightened belief, nothing stamped 
with the divine image and hkeness was sent into the 
world to be trodden on and degraded and imbruted 
by its fellows: They grasped not only the whole race 
of man then Uving, but they reached forward and 
seized upon the farthest posterity. They erected a 
beacon to guide their children, and their children's 
children, and the countless myriads who should in- 
habit the earth in other ages. Wise statesmen as they 
were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to breed 
tyrants, and so they established these great self-evi- 
dent truths, that when in the distant future some man, 
some faction, some interest, should set up the doctrine 
that none but rich men, none but white men, or none 
but Anglo-Saxon white men were entitled to life, hb- 
erty, and the pursuit of happiness, their posterity 
might look up again to the Declaration of Independence 
and take courage to renew the battle which their fathers 
began, so that truth and justice and mercy and all 
the humane and Christian virtues might not be ex- 
tinguished from the land; so that no man would 
hereafter dare to limit and circumscribe the great 
principles on which the temple of liberty was being 
built. 

"Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught 
doctrines conflicting with the great landmarks of the 
Declaration of Independence; if you have listened 
to suggestions which would take away from its gran- 
deur and mutilate the fair symmetry of its proportions; 
if you have been inclined to believe that all men are 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 209 

not created equal in those inalienable rights enumerated 
by our chart of hberty: let me entreat you to come 
back. Return to the fountain whose waters spring 
close by the Blood of the Revolution. Think nothing 
of me; take no thought for the political fate of any 
man whomsoever, but come back to the truths that 
are in the Declaration of Independence. You may 
do anything with me you choose, if you will but heed 
these sacred principles. You may not only defeat me 
for the Senate, but you may take me and put me to 
death. While pretending no indifference to earthly 
honors, I do claim to be actuated in this contest by 
something higher than an anxiety for office. I charge 
you to drop every paltry and insignificant thought 
for any man's success. It is nothing; I am nothing; 
Judge Douglas is nothing. But do not destroy that 
inamortal emblem of humanity — the Declaration of 
American Independence." * 

In Lincoln's great speech at Chicago, in June, 1858, 
before the debates, he said upon the Declaration of 
Independence : 

"Now, sirs, for the purpose of squaring things with 
this idea of 'don't care if slavery is voted up or voted 
down,' for sustaining the Dred Scott decision, for hold- 
ing that the Declaration of Independence did not mean 
anything at all, we have Judge Douglas giving his 
exposition of what the Declaration of Independence 
means, and we have him saying that the people of 
America are equal to the people of England. Accord- 
ing to his construction, you Germans are not connected 
with it. Now, I ask you in all soberness, if all these 
things, if indulged in, if ratified, if confirmed and in- 
dorsed, if taught to our children, and repeated to them, 

* Hemdon, vol. II, p. 84. 



210 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

do not tend to rub out the sentiment of liberty in the 
country, and to transform this government into a 
government of some other form. Those arguments 
that are made, that the inferior race are to be treated 
with as much allowance as they are capable of enjoy- 
ing; that as much is to be done for them as their con- 
dition will allow. What are these arguments? They 
are the arguments that kings have made for enslaving 
the people in all ages of the world. You will find that 
all the arguments in favor of kingcraft were of this 
class; they always bestrode the necks of the people, 
not that they wanted to do it, but because the people 
were better off for being ridden. That is their argu- 
ment, and this argument of the Judge is the same old 
serpent that says, You work, and I eat; you toil, and 
I will enjoy the fruits of it. Turn in whatever way 
you will, whether it come from the mouth of a king, 
an excuse for enslaving the people of his country, or 
from the mouth of men of one race as a reason for en- 
slaving the men of another race, it is all the same old 
serpent; and I hold, if that course of argumentation 
that is made for the purpose of convincing the public 
mind that we should not care about tliis, should be 
granted, it does not stop with the negro. I should 
like to know if, taking this old Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, which declares that all men are equal upon 
principle, and making exceptions to it, where will it 
stop ? If one man says it does not mean a negro, why 
not another say it does not mean some other man? 
If that declaration is not the truth, let us get the statute 
book, in which we find it, and tear it out ! (Cries of 
'No, No.') Let us stick to it, then; let us stand firmly 
by it then." 

The week following the Chicago speech he again 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 211 

refers to the Declaration of Independence in a speech 
he delivered at Springfield, Illinois: 

"My declaration upon this subject of negro slavery 
may be misrepresented, but cannot be misunderstood. 
I have said that I do not understand the Declaration 
to mean that all men were created equal in all respects. 
They are not our equal in color; but I suppose that it 
does mean to declare that all men are equal in some 
respects; they are equal in their right to 'Ufe, Liberty, 
and the pursuit of happiness.' Certainly the negro 
is not our equal in color, — perhaps not in many other 
respects; still, in the right to put into his mouth the 
bread that his own hands have earned, he is the equal 
of every other man, white or black. In pointing out 
that more has been given you, you cannot be justified 
in taking away the little which has been given him. 
All I ask for the negro is that if you do not like him, 
let him alone. If God gave him but little, that little 
let him enjoy." 

Throughout the Douglas-Lincoln debates in the cam- 
paign for the United States senatorship, reference to 
which is made in another chapter, Lincoln was de- 
claring and defining the doctrines of the Declaration 
of Independence as written by Jefferson, and adopted 
by the Federal Congress, while Douglas was endeavor- 
ing to restrict the meaning so as to apply only to white 
men or English subjects. A typical illustration from 
these debates, as bearing upon the Declaration of In- 
dependence, as understood by Lincoln, will be pertinent 
here. 

In the first debate at Ottawa, August 21, 1858, Lin- 
coln said: 

''I have no purpose to introduce political and social 
equality between the white and the black races. There 



212 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

is a physical difference between the two which, in my 
judgment, will probably forever forbid their living 
together upon the footing of perfect equahty; and in- 
asmuch as it becomes a necessity that there must be a 
difference, I, as well as Judge Douglas, am in favor of 
the race to which I belong having the superior posi- 
tion. I have never said anything to the contrary, but 
I hold that, notwithstanding all this, there is no reason 
in the world why the negro is not entitled to all the 
natural rights enumerated in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence — the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness. I hold that he is as much entitled to these 
as the white man. I agree with Judge Douglas he is 
not my equal in many respects — certainly not in color, 
perhaps not in moral or intellectual endowment. But 
in the right to eat the bread, without the leave of any- 
body else, which his own hand earns, he is my equal, 
and the equal of Judge Douglas, and the equal of every 
living man." 

Later on, in the very notable address in February, 
1861, at Philadelphia, indeed in the very Independence 
Hall, Lincoln said : 

''I am filled with deep emotion at finding myself 
standing here in this place, where were collected the 
wisdom and patriotism and devotion to principle from 
which sprang the . institutions under which we live. 
You have kindly suggested to me that in my hands is 
the task of restoring peace to the present distracted 
condition of the country. I can say in return. Sir, 
that all the political sentiments I entertain have been 
drawn so far as I have been able to draw them from the 
sentiments which originated and were given to the world 
from this hall. I have never had a feeling politically that 
did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Dec- 
laration of Independence. I have often pondered over 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 213 

the dangers which were incurred by the men who as- 
sembled here and framed and adopted that Declaration 
of Independence. I have pondered over the toils that 
were endured by the officers and soldiers of the army 
who achieved that independence. ... It was not the 
mere matter of a separation of the Colonies from the 
Motherland, but that sentknent in the Declaration of 
Independence which gave liberty not alone to the peo- 
ple of this country, hut I hope to the world for all future 
time. It was that which gave promise that in due time 
the weight would be hfted from the shoulders of all men. 
This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of 
Independence. Now, my friends, can this country be 
saved on this basis? If it can I will consider myself 
one of the happiest men in the world if I can help to 
save it. If it cannot be saved upon that principle, it will 
be truly awful. But if this country cannot be saved 
without giving up that principle, I was about to say / 
would rather he assassinated on this spot than surrender. ^^ 

In \dew of all these declarations by Lincoln express- 
ing with emphasis his abiding faith in the principles of 
the Declaration of Independence as the fundamental 
democracy of this country, it was entirely fitting that 
the great Magna Charta of his practical, patriotic 
democracy should be given at Gettysburg as the chmax 
of it all. 

Lincoln's great pohtical teacher in democracy, antici- 
pating the end, wrote his own epitaph in these modest 
words : 

"Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the 
Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia 
for religious freedom, and father of the University of 
Virginia." 

He didn't even mention that he had been President 
of the United States for eight years, deeming it was 



214 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

nobler to have contributed something to the political, 
religious, and intellectual hberty of the American 
people. 

Had Lincoln written his own epitaph, at the close of 
his eventful life, the phrase in his own inimitable 
phrase, would perhaps have been something about 
liberty and democracy. 

Most of us have read the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. Few of us have studied it. Perhaps no other 
great American has given it the studious thought and 
analytical attention as did Abraham Lincoln. 

It must have made a very profound impression upon 
him, else he would not have so earnestly and so often 
quoted it, discussed it, interpreted it, and appUed it 
to the pohtical conditions of the time. 

Most of us have accepted its sentiments as ''self- 
evident." At least we have given Uttle thought to 
the logic that its lines develop. It is a poem of pa- 
triotism in prose. But it is more. It is a masterpiece 
of logic well worthy of an Aristotle, a Whateley, or a 
Mill. 

As Lincoln himself has said in his speech at Phila- 
delphia, February, 1861, heretofore referred to: 

"I have never had a feeling politically that did not 
spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declara- 
tion of Independence. ... It was not the mere mat- 
ter of a separation of the Colonies from the Mother- 
land, but that sentiment in the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence which gave liberty not alone to the people 
of this country, but I hope to the world for all future time. 
It was that which gave promise that in due time the 
weight would be Ufted from the shoulders of all men. 
This is the sentiment embodied in the Declaration of 
Independence." 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 215 

But Lincoln got more than sentiment from this Dec- 
laration, which he read in his early Indiana days out 
of David Turnham's ''Revised Statutes of Indiana." 
Perchance he also may have read it in the "History of 
the LTnited States," though we are not told whether 
such history contained the Declaration in full or not. 
At all events he must have learned it by heart at an 
early age, and its rich outcroppings appear almost con- 
tinually in his course of political discussions and state 
papers. 

But the logic of that immortal document, as written 
by Jefferson, provided Lincoln with the key to those 
fundamental poUtical doctrines that furnished the un- 
derpinning of oiu- national democracy. 

Let us give heed for a moment to this Declaration. 
Naturally, first comes the preamble, a masterly state- 
ment. 

Then comes the declaration of self-evident truths: 
"that all men are created equal, that they are en- 
dowed by their Creator with certain unaUenable 
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the 
pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights. 
Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their 
just powers from the consent of the governed, That 
whenever any Form of Government becomes destruc- 
tive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter 
or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, lay- 
ing its foundation on such principles and organizing its 
powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely 
to effect their Safety and Happiness." 

Next comes the demonstration that these self-evident 
rights have been constantly and cardinally violated, 
viz.: 

"But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, 



216 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design 
to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their 
right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, 
and to provide new Guards for their future security. 
The history of the present King of Great Britain is a 
history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having 
in direct object the estabUshment of an absolute 
Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts 
be submitted to a candid world." 

Then follow eighteen separate paragraphs, specify- 
ing the manner in which the aforesaid ''self-evident" 
rights of the American colonists have been violated, all 
stated so simply, so strongly, that it is nine-tenths an 
argument. 

After demonstration is completed then comes, dedi- 
cation: 

"We, therefore, the Representatives of the united 
States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, 
appeaUng to the Supreme Judge of the world for the 
rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and 
by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, 
solemnly publish and declare. That these United 
Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and In- 
dependent States; . . . and that as Free and Inde- 
pendent States, they have full Power to le\'^^ War, 
conclude Peace, contract AlUances, estabhsh Com- 
merce, and to do all other Acts and Things which 
Independent States may of right do. And for the 
support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on 
the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge 
to each other our lives, our Fortunes and our sacred 
Honor." 

Signed by the thirteen colonies through their fifty- 
six delegates. 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 217 

The reader will note the significant and orderly ar- 
rangement of this illustrious argument: 

1. Declaration. 

2. Demonstration. 

3. Dedication. 

And this afterward served as the strong, splendid 
model of Abraham Lincoln in substantially all of his 
legal and poUtical addresses, as well as his masterly 
state papers. 



CHAPTER XVI 
GETTYSBURG ORATION 

Gettysburg — a little village of less than four thou- 
sand people in southern Pennsylvania near the Mary- 
land border — became world-famous in 1863 for two 
reasons: 

1. A great battle. 

2. A great speech. 

" The great battle" is pronounced by historians, espe- 
cially by Creasy, as one of a class of fifteen decisive 
battles of the world's wars. 

"The great speech" is unclassified. It stands alone 
as the greatest speech of its kind ever delivered by 
human tongue. 

What made it great? 

1. The situation. 

2. The speaker. 

3. The speech. 

"The great battle" had taken place July 1-4, 1863. 
It was one of the most sanguinary struggles that war- 
fare up to then had ever recorded. The city of the 
dead had become larger than the city of the living. 
The toll of life and hmb, of sacrifice and of suffering 
had been appalhng in that heroic struggle, but where 
"American met American." The side that stood for 
hberty and democracy had overwhelmingly triumphed. 

A great national call went up over the land that 
some of this sacred soil should be set apart for a na- 
tional cemetery for the honored dead. 

218 



GETTYSBURG ORATION 219 

The governors of the States conferred about it and 
the Honorable Andrew G. Curtin, the distinguished 
war governor of Pennsylvania, was given local charge 
and designated one David Wills as his agent to take 
care of the routine of the arrangements. 

Wills wrote a letter to Abraham Lincoln, as President 
of the United States, inviting him to be present upon 
that occasion. 

A very pertinent part of that letter reads as follows : 

"... Hon. Edward Everett will deliver the ora- 
tion. I am authorized by the Governors of the different 
states to invite you to be present and participate in 
these ceremonies, which will doubtless be very impos- 
ing and solemnly impressive. It is the desire that 
after the oration, you, as chief executive of the nation, 
formally set apart these grounds to their sacred use 
by a, few appropriate remarks.^' 

The ceremonies took place November 19, 1863. The 
presidential party arrived from Washington the day 
before, and was composed of the President, Secretary 
of State Seward, Postmaster-General Blair, Secretary 
of the Interior Usher, John G. Nicolay, and John Hay, 
the President's secretaries, and Captain H. A. Wise 
and wife, the latter a daughter of the Honorable Ed- 
ward Everett, together with many newspaper corre- 
spondents and a mihtary guard of honor. 

The night before a public reception was held by the 
good citizens of Gettysburg, at which there was some 
speech-making. 

The President, of course, was called on, but expressed 
a desire to reserve his remarks for the following day. 

Secretary Seward was also called on and delivered a 
brief address, which is as follows: 

"I am thankful that you are wiUing to hear me at 



220 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

last. I thank my God that I believe this strife is 
going to end in the removal of all that evil which 
ought to have been removed by deliberate counsel and 
peaceable means (good). I thank my God for the 
hope . . . that when that cause is removed simply by 
the operation of abolishing it as the origin and agent 
of the treason that it is without justification and with- 
out parallel, we shall henceforth be united, be only 
one country, having only one hope, one ambition and 
one destiny. To-morrow at least we shall feel that 
we are not enemies, but that we are friends and brothers, 
that this union is a reality and we shall moan together 
for the evil wrought by this rebelhon. . . . When we 
part to-morrow night let us remember that we owe it 
to our country and to mankind that this war shall 
have for its conclusion the estabhshment of the principle 
of Democratic government . . . the simple principle 
that whatever party, whatever portion of the com- 
munity prevails by constitutional suffrage in an elec- 
tion, that party is to be respected and maintained in 
power until it shall give place, on another trial and 
another verdict, to a different portion of the people. 
If you do not do this you are drifting at once and irre- 
sistibly to the very verge of universal, cheerless, and 
hopeless anarchy." 

When placed in parallel columns with the ''few ap- 
propriate remarks" of Lincoln, the day following, it 
can be confidently said that the ''rail-splitter" of the 
new West does not suffer in comparison with his schol- 
arly and distinguished Secretary of State. 

We had had two awful years of war. No one ven- 
tured to see the end. The triumphs of Grant and 
Sherman had not yet come. The tremendous loss of 
life and treasure, suffering and sacrifice was to be en- 
dured for two years more vmtil Appomattox. 



GETTYSBURG ORATION 221 

In this appalling situation the morning of November 
19 had come when Edward Everett, in a masterly, 
eloquent, and histrionic address of two hours delivered 
"the oration." 

Then came Lincoln, who was assigned the task of 
making a "few appropriate remarks." 

The air was still charged with the eloquence of Ever- 
ett. Its echoes still hallowed every heart of those who 
heard. Probably but few of the assembled thousands 
expected any more than a mere formal dedication of 
that sacred soil for a national cemetery. But no, the 
ceremonies of the day were not over; they had only 
begun. 

Like Moses of old, delivering a new commandment 
to his people, so Lincoln, awkward, ungainly, pro- 
foundly impressed with the solemnity of the occasion, 
gives a new commandment to his people for a new 
"dedication" to "new birth of freedom," and a new 
democracy in "government of the people by the peo- 
ple and for the people." 

Lincoln said : 

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought 
forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in 
liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men 
are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great 
civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so 
conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are 
met on a great battlefield of that war. We have 
come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting 
place for those who here gave their lives that that na-' 
tion might live. It is altogether fitting and proper 
that we should do this. But, in a larger sense, we can- 
not dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow, 
this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who 
struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor 



222 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

power to add or detract. The world will little note nor 
long remember what we may say here, but it can never 
forget what they did here. It is for us the living rather 
to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they 
who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It 
is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task 
remaining before us, that from these honored dead we 
take increased devotion to that cause for which they 
gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here 
highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in 
vain; that this nation under God shall have a new 
birth of freedom, and that government of the people, 
by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from 
the earth." 

There has been much misinformation in regard to 
the preparation of this address, some contending that 
it was wholly extemporaneous, others that it was writ- 
ten on board train between Washington and Gettys- 
burg, some say upon the President's cuff, others upon 
a mere scrap of paper, presumably an envelope. 

Lincoln's speeches almost without exception, cer- 
tainly all his great speeches, were most carefully thought 
out, systematically arranged, logically fitted together 
and painstakingly phrased, generally through manu- 
script before their delivery. 

Those who knew Mr. Lincoln best generally join in 
the contention that Mr. Lincoln was not a success as 
an impromptu speaker. The Springfield speech in 1858 
and Cooper Union speech in New York in 1860 contain 
undoubted evidences of that thorough preparation 
characteristic of Lincoln. 

And so as to this Gettysburg address, that is classed 
as one of his four greatest addresses. Colonel John 
Nicolay, who was one of his private secretaries and a 



GETTYSBURG ORATION 223 

member of the presidential party on this occasion, 
says: 

''There is neither recorded evidence, nor well-founded 
tradition that Mr. Lincoln did any wTiting or made 
any notes on the journey between Washington and 
Gettysburg." 

The best available evidence from Nicolay and others 
is to the effect that the first draft of this speech was 
prepared in Washington the day before the trip. 

Mr. Wills, President Lincoln's host at Gettysburg, 
says that the President retired about nine o'clock and 
sent his servant down-stairs for writing-materials. 
These were taken to Mr. Lincoln's room by Mr. Wills 
himself. Thereupon Mr. Lincoln said to him: "Mr. 
Wills, what do you expect from me to-morrow?" Mr. 
Wills replied: "A brief address, Mr. President." 

Mr. Wills reports that in about a half an hour after 
his visit to President Lincoln's room, Mr. Lincoln 
came down-stairs, and had some sheets of paper with 
him, and with Mr. Wills he went to the house in which 
Secretary Seward was a guest and submitted to the 
secretary his manuscript. It is said to have met Mr. 
Seward's approval. They then returned to the Wills 
home. The next morning a further revision of the 
manuscript was made. 

At the time of the speech Mr. Nicolay advises us 
that the President held the manuscript in his hand, 
though he did not read from it, but in his dehvery 
of the speech he further revised the matter and style 
of the manuscript. 

So that the preponderance of the evidence is clear, 
from those who ought to know, that this speech was 
most carefully considered, di'afted, and redrafted by 
Mr. Lincoln before its delivery. But if any further 



224 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

evidence were needed to corroborate painstaking prep- 
aration, both as to logic and language, the speech it- 
self furnishes that evidence. 

Shortly thereafter a further sHght verbal revision 
was made by Lincoln, which gave us the masterpiece 
we now know. 

For years I have had a sort of subconscious feeling 
that there was something about this address that I 
had not discovered. I could feel its effect. It was 
exhilarating but elusive; when I reached out for it 
it would seem to be just beyond me. 

My curiosity to discover this mystery persisted to 
the point that I was led to put this speech into its parts, 
and see what, if anything, would be disclosed. So I 
dissected it into it« ten sentences, and the result of 
that labor is shown on opposite page. 

This dissection of the Gettysburg speech developed 
the keystone idea of Lincoln upon this occasion. His 
art in putting this central idea in every one of the ten 
sentences uttered upon that occasion demonstrates 
beyond a doubt his unapproachable excellence in logic 
and language. 

How closely it is reasoned, how cleverly expressed ! 
The polish in his patriotism, the philosophy in his prop- 
ositions, the unity of his ideas are all tj'^pical of his 
gi'eat life and his devotion to the union of the States. 

What is this keystone idea throughout the address? 
The colored diagram is its own answer: "Dedica- 
tion." 

In these ten sentences the word ''dedicate" ex- 
pressly appears six times. In the fifth sentence the 
definitive adjective ''this" is used for "dedicate." 

In the seventh sentence the word "consecrate" is 
used for "dedicate." 



GETTYSBURG ORATION 



225 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 



Sentence 
One. 



Sentence 
Ttv-o. 



Sentence 
Three. 

Sentence 
Four. 



Sentence 
Five. 

Sentence 
Six. 

Sentence 
Seven. 



Sentence 
Eight. 



Sentence 
Nine. 



Sentence 
Ten. 



GETTYSBUR 
(an an 



.DDRESS 



,\LYSI 



Fourscore and seven (eighty-sN;en) years ago (1776, 
not 1789) our fathers brought forthS mon this contine nt 
a new nation conceived in hberty an djDEDICATEDi to 
the proposition that all men are,fa>eSled equal. 



Now we are engagedi^n a great civil war testing 
whether that na Ji<y^or any nation so conceived, and .so 
IDEDICATEDIcan long endure. 



We are met on a great I BATTLEFIELD) (where 
life is dedicated) of that war — — 7»— — — — ■ 



We have come t olDEDICATEl a portion of that field 
as a final resting-pifTce for those who here gave their lives 
that thai nati»nmight live. 



ftogether fitting and proper that we should do 



But in a larger sense we cannot ! DEDICATEIJ we can- 
not consecrate, we cannot hall^ji/lhis ground. 

T he brave men livina^ ^and dead who struggled here 
have lCONSECRATEDj it far above our poor power to 
add or detract.N^,^^ 

The world will lithe note nor long remember what 
we may say here, but iKf an never forget 
IWHAT THEY DID HEReI 
(Dedication of Kbi^an life.) 



It is for us the living rather to be lDEDICATEDl here 
to the unfinished work which they whofou^nthere have 
thus far so nobly advanced. 



who fouglft 



It is rather for us to be here |DEDICATED| to the great 
tasks remaining before us, that from these honored dead 
we take increased devotion to that cause for which they 
gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly 
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that 
this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, 
and that government of the people by the people and for 
the people shall not perish from the earth. 



226 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

In the third sentence we have the word ^' battle- 
field," and in the eighth sentence we have the words 
"what they did here," the simplest, strongest, and 
most picturesque language possible to express the 
active idea of dedication. 

As the word ''dedicate" was the biggest and best 
word in the English language in 1863 in mid-war, so 
that same word ''dedicate" is the biggest and best 
word in the English language to-day when we are 
likewise in mid-war. 

As Jefferson made it the slogan of our spirit and 
test of the times in 1776, and as Lincoln likewise used 
it in 1863, so may we all, as one hundred miUion Amer- 
icans or more, likewise use it in 1917. 

Some have placed the emphasis in this speech upon 
the last part of the last sentence; some have placed 
it upon the prepositions "of," "by," and "for." 
But I submit, and some who heard it hold, that what- 
ever emphasis was used in this sentence was put, not 
upon the prepositions, but upon the words "the people." 
Yet the foregoing diagram unmistakably demonstrates 
that Lincoln put his emphasis elsewhere — that he 
placed it properly upon the central idea "dedicate." 

How this idea is bound together and linked on to 
the pole-star of the Declaration of Independence ! 

Indeed, we find sentence two linked on to sentence 
one, and sentence three linked on in turn to sentence 
two, and so on through these ten sentences, link on 
link, until he had forged a chain of consecration, dedi- 
cating the nation to hberty, equality, and democracy. 

But this speech was not only remarkable for what it 
did say; it was equally as remarkable for what it did 
not say. 

Throughout the speech of Edward Everett there 



GETTYSBURG ORATION 227 

occur the words "rebel" and ''rebellion," "slavery," 
"secession," "treason," and the like, and Secretary 
Seward, the night before in his short speech, hereto- 
fore quoted, used the words "treason," and "rebel- 
lion." 

But these find no place in the speech of Lincoln. 
Not a bitter or hateful word is there, and though a 
man above all others who had been rejected and re- 
viled by the South, he reviled not again. 

Truly has Job written, "How forcible are right 
words"; and I may add also, How forcible are appro- 
priate thoughts ! 

The Gettysburg address is more than a great ora- 
tion, it is an index of his mind, an exponent of his spir- 
itual self. It is as perfect a portrait of Abraham Lin- 
coln as could be put in human speech. 

In short, we see here the logician, the linguist, the 
leader, the spirit and soul of a truly great man, moved 
by "malice toward none and charity for all." 

The brevity of the speech is excelled only by the 
brevity of the words in which it is phrased. 

The ten sentences contain 267 immortal words, 200 
of which are words of one syllable; 43 words of two 
syllables and the remainder three or more syllables, 
but all of them are simple and familiar enough for 
"any boy I knew to comprehend." 

The short Saxon words stand out strongly. Lincoln 
had never studied Latin or Greek, or any other foreign 
language, but he did know English, and as a specimen 
of the purest Enghsh this address has to-day an honored 
place in Oxford Universit}^, England. 

Note also the absence of the superlative, the de- 
scriptive adjective and adverb. The skeleton of his 



228 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

speech is the concrete noun to which he hitches some 
active verb or its derivatives. 

These words have point and " punch " and, taken to- 
gether, make a sort of "movie-picture" of patriotic and 
intense human interest. 

In style as much as in subject-matter it excelled 
all other addresses of his own or any other time. This 
is the more significant because his specific instructions 
were to submit "a few appropriate remarks." 

The orator of the day was chosen from New Eng- 
land's universities, her culture, her scholarship, her 
statesmen, Edward Everett. He talked two hours and 
most of what he said has been forgotten. Lincoln 
talked two minutes and what he said not only has 
become a classic, but is hanging upon the walls to- 
day of more than a milUon homes, not only in America 
but throughout the world. 

In a two-minute speech he used the central idea 
ten times, and the same central word six times — the 
word "dedicate." 

Surely, at some time or other in his earlier life, this 
word must have made a very profound impression 
upon him to have been put so prominently in the 
Gettysburg address. 

When, where, and how had he come in contact with 
it? 

We have already seen how in his early days he be- 
came an ardent student of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. We have seen in the chapter, "Lincoln's 
Interpretation of the Declaration of Independence," 
how frequently he referred to it, how thoroughly he 
analyzed it, what a wonderful impression it made upon 
his mind and soul. 

It is more than passing coincidence that the closing 



GETTYSBURG ORATION 229 

words of that Declaration of Independence were de- 
voted to a dedication of the Colonists, their lives and 
treasures, to the cause for which it stood. 

It has been said that Lincoln's effort was a sad dis- 
appointment to him, and that he was greatly depressed 
as the result of the utter absence of applause during 
the address. This, however, would not be strange, 
even if true, owing to the occasion and the solemnity 
of the environment, but the New York Tribune of the 
following day shows "applause" five different times 
during the address, and ''long continued applause" 
at the close. If Lincoln at any time spoke deprecat- 
ingly of his effort it was only because it was more or 
less characteristic of him. 

It has been said that Lincoln's effort was a sad dis- 
appointment to Everett. This is wholly disproved 
by the letter that Everett took the pains to write Lin- 
coln the day following the address, in which he said, 
among other things: 

''Permit me to express my great admiration of the 
thoughts expressed by you with such eloquent sim- 
phcity and appropriateness at the consecration of the 
cemetery. I should be glad if I could flatter myself 
that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion 
in two hours as you did in two minutes." 

I have gone into the detail of analysis on the Gettys- 
burg speech in order to furnish a model for a similar 
analysis of Lincoln's other speeches. 

They are too long to permit of such separate de- 
tailed dissection, as has been applied to this brief ora- 
tion. But if they shall be studied and separated into 
their natural and logical parts, it will be seen that 
in the main they pursue the same unity of thought, 
simpUcity of speech, clearness and conclusiveness in 



230 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

demonstration, sincerity of dedication that is so strik- 
ingly characteristic in the Gettysburg address. 

The student, young and old, in or out of high school 
or college, cannot more pleasurably nor profitably 
employ his mind than by a careful study and analysis 
of many of the other great speeches and papers of 
Abraham Lincoln. 

This greatest of the world's orations deserves a trib- 
ute from one of the world's greatest orators. Colonel 
IngersoU said of the Gettysburg address: 

"If you wish to know the difference between an 
orator and an elocutionist — between what is felt and 
what is said — between what the heart and brain can 
do together and what the brain can do alone — read 
Lincoln's wondrous words at Gettysburg, and then 
the speech of Edward Everett. The oration of Lin- 
coln will never be forgotten. It will live until languages 
are dead and lips are dust. The speech of Everett 
will never be read. The elocutionists beheve in the 
virtue of voice, the sublimity of syntax, the majesty 
of long sentences, and the genius of gesture. The 
orator loves the real, the simple, the natural. He 
places the thought above all. He knows that the 
greatest ideas should be expressed in the shortest words 
— that the greatest statues need the least drapery." 



CHAPTER XVII 
LINCOLN'S GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 

Again it is strikingly demonstrated that his argu- 
ments on law, government, or politics were usually 
bottomed upon some primary legal principle from one 
of the great masters of the law, some parable or refer- 
ence from the Bible, or some poUtical proposition from 
the Declaration of Independence. 

No better illustration can be found than the Spring- 
field speech of 1858, which became known as the 
"House Divided Against Itself" speech. 

That speech occupies such a conspicuous and critical 
position in the pohtical life of Lincoln that it deserves 
special mention here. 

Upon Lincoln's return to Springfield in 1849, at the 
close of his one term in Congress, we have already 
noted how he had devoted, yes, had dedicated him- 
self to the practice of the law and to its deeper and 
broader study. He had little thought of ever again 
taking an active hand in the politics of the times, but 
the Kansas-Nebraska Bill of 1854 had so aroused his 
love for human freedom and his hatred of slavery that 
he soon again found himself in the political maelstrom. 

The Democratic party had lost control of the State 
Legislature of Ilhnois in that election. Lincoln was the 
WTiig candidate for the United States senatorship. 
Feeling that if he continued in the contest he would 
endanger the election of an antislavery senator, Lin- 
coln magnanimously withdrew and urged his friends 

231 



232 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

to support Trumbull, an anti-Nebraska Democrat, 
when, by every fair consideration of politics, Lincoln 
should then have been the United States senator. 

After that campaign he continued largely in the 
practice of the law until 1858, when Senator Douglas, 
his old-time rival, was again a candidate for re-election. 
In the meantime a number of pohtical changes had 
occurred. Webster's famous, or infamous ''7th of 
March" speech, wherein he apologized and trimmed 
for all his past position against slavery and lost all the 
political prestige he had ever had as a Whig leader; 
Clay's ''Alabama" letter in the campaign of 1844, 
which characteristically compromised upon the grave 
cause of human liberty, and other like subservience to 
the controlling slave power of the day, had left the 
Whig party not only leaderless but issueless. It dis- 
solved and died as it deserved to die. 

Upon its ruins rose the new Republican party of 
1854 and 1856, and Lincoln became one of its most 
active members and leaders in the State of IlUnois. 

One of the poHcies to which the new party was com- 
mitted was "to arrest the further spread of slavery," 
and it was upon this proposition that Abraham Lincoln 
prepared his great Springfield speech in June of 1858. 

After he had carefully prepared the speech and re- 
duced it to manuscript he read it to a number of his 
friends. Most of them openly condemned it and none 
approved it. One said "Damned fool utterance," 
another said, "Impolitic," another said, "It gives un- 
necessary offense," another said, "It is all right, but 
it is ahead of its time," and so on. 

But Lincoln said: 

"My friends, this thing has been retarded long 
enough. The time has come when these sentiments 



HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 233 

should be uttered, and if it is decreed that I should go 
down because of this speech, then let me go down 
linked to the truth ; let me die in the advocacy of what 
is just and right." 

The first paragraph was the one that was especially 
''impolitic." If that had been omitted there would 
have been no serious objection to the speech by his 
party friends. 

The speech in full is as follows: 

''Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Convention: 

1 . ' ' If we could first know where we are, and whither 
we are tending, we could better judge what to do, and 
how to do it. We are now far into the fifth year, since 
a policy was initiated with the avowed object and con- 
fident promise of putting an end to slavery agitation. 
Under the operation of that poUcy, that agitation has 
not only not ceased but has constantly augmented. In 
my opinion it will not cease until a crisis shall have 
been reached and passed. 'A house divided against 
itself cannot stand.' I believe this government can- 
not endure permanently half slave and half free. I do 
not expect the Union to be dissolved — I do not expect 
the house to fall — but I do expect it will cease to be 
divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other. 
Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further 
spread of it, and place it where the pubhc mind shall 
rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate ex- 
tinction; or its advocates will push it forward till it 
shall become aUke lawful in all the States, old as well 
as new, North as well as South. 

''Have we no tendency to the latter condition? 

2. "Let any one who doubts carefully contemplate 
that now almost complete legal combination — piece of 



234 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

machinery, so to speak — compounded of the Nebraska 
doctrine and the Dred Scott decision. Let him con- 
sider not only what work the machinery is adapted to 
do, and how well adapted; but also let him study the 
history of the construction, and trace, if he can, or 
rather fail, if he can, to trace the evidences of design 
and concert of action among its chief architects, from 
the beginning. 

3. ''The new year of 1854 found slavery excluded 
from more than half the States by State constitutions, 
and from most of the national territory by congressional 
prohibition. Four days later commenced the struggle 
which ended in repealing that congressional prohibition. 
This opened all the national territory to slavery, and 
was the first point gained. 

4. "But, so far, Congress only had acted; and an 
indorsement by the people, real or apparent, was in- 
dispensable to save the point already gained and give 
chance for more. 

5. "This necessity had not been overlooked, but had 
been provided for, as well as might be, in the notable 
argimient of 'squatter sovereignty,' otherwise called 
'sacred right of self-government,' which latter phrase, 
though expressive of the only rightful basis of any 
government, was so perverted in this attempted use of 
it as to amount to just this: That if any one man choose 
to enslave another, no third man shall be allowed to 
object. That argument was incorporated into the Ne- 
braska bill itself, in the language which follows: 'It 
being the true intent and meaning of this act not to 
legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to 
exclude it therefrom; but to leave the people thereof 
perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic in- 
stitutions in their own way, subject only to the Con- 



HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 235 

stitution of the United States.' Then opened the roar 
of loose declamation in favor of ' squatter sovereignty ' 
and 'sacred right of self-government.' 'But,' said op- 
position members, 'let us amend the bill so as to ex- 
pressly declare that the people of the Territory may 
exclude slavery.' 'Not we,' said the friends of the 
measure; and down they voted the amendment. 

6. "While the Nebraska bill was passing through 
Congress a law case involving the question of a negro's 
freedom, by reason of his owner having voluntarily 
taken him first into a free State and then into a Ter- 
ritory covered by the congressional prohibition, and 
held him as a slave for a long time in each, was passing 
through the United States Circuit Court for the Dis- 
trict of Missouri; and both Nebraska bill and lawsuit 
were brought to a decision in the same month of May, 
1854. The negro's name was Dred Scott, which name 
now designates the decision finally made in the case. 
Before the then next presidential election, the law case 
came to and was argued in the Supreme Court of the 
United States; but the decision of it was deferred until 
after the election. Still, before the election. Senator 
Trumbull, on the floor of the Senate, requested the 
leading advocate of the Nebraska bill to state his 
opinion whether the people of a Territory can consti- 
tutionally exclude slavery from their limits; and the 
latter answered: 'That is a question for the Supreme 
Court.' 

7. "The election came. Mr. Buchanan was elected, 
and the indorsement, such as it was secured. That 
was the second point gained. The indorsement, how- 
ever, fell short of a clear popular majority by nearly 
four hundred thousand votes, and so, perhaps, was 
not overwhelmingly reliable and satisfactory. The 



236 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

outgoing President, in his last annual message, as 
impressively as possible echoed back upon the people 
the weight and authority of the indorsement. The 
Supreme Court met again; did not announce their 
decision, but ordered a reargument. The presidential 
inauguration came, and still no decision of the court; 
but the incoming President in his inaugural address 
fervently exhorted the people to abide by the forth- 
coming decision, whatever it might be. Then, in a 
few days, came the decision. 

8. ''The reputed author of the Nebraska bill finds 
an early occasion to make a speech at this capital in- 
dorsing the Dred Scott decision, and vehemently de- 
nouncing all opposition to it. The new President, 
too, seizes the early occasion of the SilUman letter to 
indorse and strongly construe that decision, and to 
express his astonishment that any different view had 
ever been entertained ! 

9. ''At length a squabble springs up between the 
President and the author of the Nebraska bill, on the 
mere question of fact, whether the Lecompton con- 
stitution was or was not, in any just sense, made by 
the people of Kansas; and in that quarrel the latter 
declares that all he wants is a fair vote for the people, 
and that he cares not whether slavery be voted down 
or voted up. I do not understand his declaration that 
he cares not whether slavery be voted down or voted 
up to be intended by him other than as an apt defini- 
tion of the policy he would impress upon the pubUc 
mind — the principle for which he declares he has suf- 
fered so much, and is ready to suffer to the end. And 
well may he cUng to that principle. If he has any 
parental feeling, well may he cling to it. That prin- 
ciple is the only shred left of his original Nebraska 



HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 237 

doctrine. Under the Dred Scott decision 'squatter 
sovereignty' squatted out of existence, tumbled down 
like temporary scaffolding, — like the mold at the foun- 
dry, served through one blast and fell back into loose 
sand, — helped to carry an election, and then kicked 
to the winds. His late joint struggle with the Repub- 
licans against the Lecompton constitution involves 
nothing of the original Nebraska doctrine. That 
struggle was made on a point — the right of a people 
to make their own constitution — upon which he and 
the Republicans have never differed. 

10. "The several points of the Dred Scott decision, 
in connection with Senator Douglas's 'care not' poUcy, 
constitute the piece of machinery in its present state 
of advancement. This was the third point gained. 
The working points of that machinery are: 

"(1) That no negro slave, imported as such from 
Africa, and no descendant of such slave, can ever be 
a citizen of any State, in the sense of that term as used 
in the Constitution of the United States. This point 
is made in order to deprive the negro in every possible 
event of the benefit of that provision of the United 
States Constitution which declares that 'the citizens 
of each State shall be entitled to all the privileges and 
immunities of citizens in the several States.' 

"(2) That, 'subject to the Constitution of the 
United States,' neither Congress nor a territorial legis- 
lature can exclude slavery from any United States 
Territory. This point is made in order that individual 
men may fill up the Territories with slaves, without 
danger of losing them as property and thus enhance 
the chances of permanency to the institution through 
all the future. 

"(3) That whether the holding a negro in actual 



238 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

slavery in a free State makes him free as against the 
holder, the United States courts will not decide, but 
will leave to be decided by the courts of any slave 
State the negro may be forced into by the master. 
This point is made not to be pressed immediately, 
but, if acquiesced in for a while, and apparently in- 
dorsed by the people at an election, then to sustain 
the logical conclusion that what Dred Scott's master 
might lawfully do with Dred Scott in the free State 
of Illinois, every other master may lawfully do with 
any other one or one thousand slaves in IlHnois or in 
any other free State. 

11. ''Auxiliary to all this, and working hand in 
hand with it, the Nebraska doctrine, or what is left 
of it, is to educate and mold public opinion, at least 
Northern public opinion, not to care whether slavery 
is voted down or voted up. This shows exactly where 
we now are, and partially, also, whither we are tend- 
ing. 

''12. It will throw additional light on the latter, to 
go back and run the mind over the string of historical 
facts already stated. Several things will now appear 
less dark and mysterious than they did when they 
were transpiring. The people were to be left 'per- 
fectly free/ 'subject only to the Constitution.' What 
the Constitution had to do with it outsiders could 
not then see. Plainly enough now, it was an exactly 
fitted niche for the Dred Scott decision to afterward 
come in, and declare the perfect freedom of the people 
to be just no freedom at all. Why was the amendment 
expressly declaring the right of the people voted down ? 
Plainly enough now, the adoption of it would have 
spoiled the niche for the Dred Scott decision. Why 
was the court decision held up ? Why even a senator's 



HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 239 

individual opinion withheld till after the presidential 
election? Plainly enough now, the speaking out then 
would have damaged the 'perfectly free' argument 
upon which the election was to be carried. Why the 
outgoing President's fehcitation on the indorsement? 
Why the delay of a reargument? Why the incoming 
President's advance exhortation in favor of the de- 
cision ? These things look like the cautious patting and 
petting of a spirited horse preparatory to mounting 
him, when it is dreaded that he may give the rider 
a fall. And why the hasty after-endorsement of the 
decision by the President and others? 

13. "We cannot absolutely know that all these exact 
adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when 
we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of 
wliich we know have been gotten out at different times 
and places and by different workmen, — Stephen, 
Franklin, Roger, and James, for instance, — and we 
see these timbers joined together, and see they exactly 
make the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and 
mortises exactly fitting, and all the lengths and pro- 
portions of the different pieces exactly adapted to 
their respective places, and not a piece too many or 
too few, not omitting even scaffolding — or, if a single 
piece be lacking, we see the place in the frame exactly 
fitted and prepared yet to bring such piece in — in 
such a case we find it impossible not to beUeve that 
Stephen and Franklin and Roger and James all under- 
stood one another from the beginning, and all worked 
upon a common plan or draft drawn up before the 
first blow was struck. 

14. "It should not be overlooked that, by the 
Nebraska bill, the people of a State as well as Terri- 
tory were to be left 'perfectly free,' 'subject only to 



240 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

the Constitution.' Why mention a State? They 
were legislating for Territories, and not for or about 
States. Certainly the people of a State are and ought 
to be subject to the Constitution of the United States; 
but why is mention of this lugged into this merely 
territorial law? Why are the people of a Territory 
and the people of a State therein lumped together, 
and their relation to the Constitution therein treated 
as being precisely the same? While the opinion of 
the court, by Chief Justice Taney, in the Dred Scott 
case, and the separate opinions of all the concurring 
judges, expressly declare that the Constitution of the 
United States neither permits Congress nor a terri- 
torial legislature to exclude slavery from any United 
States Territory, they all omit to declare whether or 
not the same Constitution permits a State, or the 
people of a State, to exclude it. Possibly, this is a 
mere omission; but who can be quite sure, if McLean 
or Curtis had sought to get into the opinion a declara- 
tion of unlimited power in the people of a State to 
exclude slavery from their limits, just as Chase and 
Mace sought to get such declaration, in behalf of the 
people of a Territory, into the Nebraska bill — I ask, 
who can be quite sure that it would not have been 
voted down in the one case as it had been in the other ? 
The nearest approach to the point of declaring the 
power of a State over slavery is made by Judge Nelson. 
He approaches it more than once, using the precise 
idea, and almost the language too, of the Nebraska 
act. On one occasion his exact language is: 'Except 
in case where the power is restrained by the Constitu- 
tion of the United States, the law of the State is supreme 
over the subject of slavery within its jurisdiction.' 
In what cases the power of the States is so restrained by 



HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 241 

the United States Constitution is left an open question, 
precisely as the same question as to the restraint on the 
power of the Territories was left open in the Nebraska 
act. Put this and that together, and we have another 
nice little niche, which we may, ere long, see filled with 
another Supreme Court decision declaring that the 
Constitution of the United States does not permit a 
State to exclude slavery from its limits. And this 
may especially be expected if the doctrine of 'care 
not whether slavery be voted down or voted up' shall 
gain upon the pubhc mind sufficiently to give promise 
that such a decision can be maintained when made. 

15. "Such a decision is all that slavery now lacks 
of being alike lawful in all the States. Welcome, or 
unwelcome, such decision is probably coming, and 
will soon be upon us, unless the power of the present 
poHtical dynasty shall be met and overthrown. We 
shall he down pleasantly dreaming that the people 
of Missouri are on the verge of making their State 
free, and we shall awake to the reality instead that 
the Supreme Court has made Illinois a slave State. 
To meet and overthrow the power of that dynasty is 
the work now before all those who would prevent that 
consummation. That is what we have to do. How 
can we best do it? 

16. ''There are those who denounce us openly to 
their own friends, and yet whisper us softly that Senator 
Douglas is the aptest instrument there is with which 
to effect that object. They wish us to infer all from 
the fact that he now has a little quarrel with the present 
head of the dynasty; and that he has regularly voted 
with us on a single point upon which he and we have 
never differed. They remind us that he is a great man 
and that the largest of us are very small ones. Let 



242 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

this be granted. But 'a living dog is better than a 
dead Uon/ Judge Douglas, if not a dead lion for this 
work, is at least a caged and toothless one. How can 
he oppose the advances of slavery? He don't care 
anything about it. His avowed mission is impressing 
the 'public heart' to care nothing about it. A leading 
Douglas newspaper thinks Douglas's superior talent 
will be needed to resist the revival of the African slave- 
trade. Does Douglas believe an effort to revive that 
trade is approaching? He has not said so. Does he 
really think so ? But if it is, how can he resist it ? For 
years he has labored to prove it a sacred right of white 
men to take negro slaves into the new Territories. Can 
he possibly show that it is less a sacred right to buy 
them where they can be bought cheapest? And un- 
questionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa 
than in Virginia. He has done all in his power to re- 
duce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere 
right of property; and as such, how can he oppose the 
foreign slave-trade? How can he refuse that trade 
in that 'property' shall be 'perfectly free,' unless he 
does it as a protection to the home production? And 
as the home producers will probably not ask the protec- 
tion, he will be wholly without a ground of opposition. 
17. "Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man 
may rightfully be wiser to-day than he was yesterday 
— that he may rightfully change when he finds himself 
wrong. But can we, for that reason, run ahead, and 
infer that he will make any particular change of which 
he, himself, has given no intimation? Can we safely 
base our action upon any such vague inference ? Now, 
as ever, I wish not to misrepresent Judge Douglas's 
position, question his motives, or do aught that can 
be personally offensive to him. Whenever, if ever, 



HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 243 

he and we can come together on principle so that our 
great cause may have assistance from his great ability, 
I hope to have interposed no adventitious obstacle. 
But clearly, he is not now with us — he does not pre- 
tend to be — he does not promise ever to be. 

18. "Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and 
conducted by, its own undoubted friends — those whose 
hands are free, whose hearts are in the work, who do 
care for the result. Two years ago the Republicans 
of the nation mustered over thirteen hundred thousand 
strong. We did this under the single impulse of re- 
sistance to a common danger, with every external 
circumstance against us. Of strange, discordant, and 
even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, 
and formed and fought the battle through, under the 
constant hot fire of a disciplined, proud, and pampered 
enemy. Did we brave all then to falter now? — now, 
when that same enemy is wavering, dissevered, and 
belligerent? The result is not doubtful. We shall 
not fail — if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise 
counsels may accelerate or mistakes delay it, but, 
sooner or later, the victory is sure to come." 

The speech made a "profound impression." But it 
did much more than that; it was the one speech dis- 
cussed not only in Springfield but throughout Illinois, 
and more or less throughout the North and even parts 
of the South. 

Some of the Republicans were considerably dissatis- 
fied with some of the things that Lincoln had said. 
Some of his most intimate friends remonstrated with 
him as to his political indiscretion. To one of these 
critics he said: 

"If I had to draw a pen across my record and erase 
my whole fife from sight and I had one poor gift or 



244 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

choice left as to what I should save from the wreck I 
should choose that speech and leave it to the world 
unerased." 

In my judgment this speech did more in the making 
of the man Lincoln, the logician Lincoln, and repre- 
sented more of the lawyer Lincoln and the political 
general Lincoln than any other speech he ever made. 

This speech was the underpinning of the Lincoln- 
Douglas debates. In conjunction with the Cooper 
Union speech, treated in a separate chapter, it had 
more to do with his nomination for the presidency 
than any other words he ever uttered. 

Let us analyze the speech as the lawyer and logician 
uttered it. 

Note that in the very first paragraph of this speech 
he plants himself squarely upon a proposition from 
Holy Writ — Matthew, 12th chapter, 25th verse: 

"And Jesus knew their thoughts and said unto them, 
every kingdom divided against itself is brought to 
desolation; and every city or house divided against it- 
self shall not stand." 

The verity of that proposition had not been ques- 
tioned for over eighteen centuries and Lincoln did not 
think it could be successfully questioned now; so he 
bottomed his great speech upon that elementary prop- 
osition as announced by Jesus of Nazareth when he 
was reproving the Pharisees of old. As a corollary to 
that proposition he says : 

''Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the 
further spread of it and place it where the public mind 
shall rest in the behef that it is in the course of ultimate 
extinction or its advocates will push it forward until 
it shall become alike lawful in all the States, old as 
well as new, North as well as South. 



HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 245 

''Have we no tendency to the latter condition?" 
Here now is his basic proposition: 

1. The ''half slave" and "half free" constitute the 
"divided house." 

2. Such a house cannot stand — "it will become all 
one thing or all the other." 

3. The tendency of the times is to "push it (sla- 
very) forward until it shall become alike lawful in all 
the States." 

As discussed before, Lincoln's method was so ex- 
ceedingly simple that we naturally overlook it. 

First comes his statement of fact, next his declara- 
tion of the principles involved, then he proceeds to 
demonstrate the soundness of his position as to the 
facts and the application of his principles thereto. 

Throughout his public discussions "declaration" 
comes first, "demonstration" next, and very shortly, 
if the cause be near his heart as this was, there follows 
a "dedication" to the cause. 

From the second to the twelfth paragraph, inclusive, 
he presents his evidence, and then demonstrates the 
fact to be that there was a "legal combination — 'piece 
of machinery,' so to speak — compounded of the Ne- 
braska doctrine (legislative) and the Dred Scott deci- 
sion" (judicial decree) all adapted to and conducive to 
such extension and nationaUzation of slavery. 

Having now laid the groundwork by strong circum- 
stantial proof, he boldly makes the charge contained in 
paragraph 13 as follows: 

"We cannot absolutely know that all these exact 
adaptations are the result of preconcert. But when 
we see a lot of framed timbers, different portions of 
which we know have been gotten out at different times 
and places and by different workmen, — Stephen, Frank- 



246 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

lin, Roger, and James, for instance, — and we see these 
timbers joined together, and see they exactly make 
the frame of a house or a mill, all the tenons and mor- 
tises exactly fitting, and all the lengths and proportions 
of the different pieces exactly adapted to their respec- 
tive places, and not a piece too many or too few, not 
omitting even scaffolding — or, if a single piece be lack- 
ing, we see the place in the frame exactly fitted and 
prepared yet to bring such piece in — in such a case we 
find it impossible not to believe that Stephen and 
Frankhn and Roger and James all understood one an- 
other from the beginning, and all worked upon a com- 
mon plan or draft drawn up before the first blow was 
struck." 

That was a heroic thing to say. But Lincoln felt 
that he had demonstrated it as conclusively as any 
political poUcy was capable of demonstration, and 
suffice it to say, there never was any serious and 
successful attempt made to answer it. Of course it 
was categorically denied. The opposition undertook 
to laugh it out of court, but the charge stuck. It 
had all the earmarks of truth in it and the people 
befieved it. 

Note the concrete noun that he uses as the base of 
every thought and then he hitches up to the concrete 
noun the active verb, so that you get a sort of picture 
upon the mental screen. In this paragraph you can 
see the President of the United States, James Buchanan, 
and his predecessor, Franklin Pierce, confer with the 
judge of the Supreme Court, Roger B. Taney, and the 
Democratic legislative leader, Stephen A. Douglas, co- 
laboring on a policy to nationalize slavery throughout 
North and South, East and West. 

In paragraph 14 Lincoln then attacks the Dred Scott 



HIS GREAT SPRINGFIELD SPEECH 247 

decision, which was a part of this poHtical conspiracy 
to fasten slavery upon the people against their will. 

The 15th paragraph anticipates another decision to 
fill "the niche" considerately left open to complete the 
conspiracy announced in paragraph 13. 

Again, here comes political generalship. Lincoln 
realized, as no other man did, that great effort would be 
made in behalf of Senator Douglas, because of his hav- 
ing taken a stand against the Lecompton Constitution 
and against the administration's effort to have that 
constitution ratified by the people of Kansas. There- 
fore, some would say that Senator Douglas was ''the 
aptest instrument to overthrow the power of that 
dynasty," though, as Lincoln charged, he was one of 
the conspirators to extend and perpetuate the slave 
power. 

Lincoln aptly asks : 

"How can he oppose the advances of slavery? He 
don't care anything about it. (Douglas had fre- 
quently said he didn't care whether it was voted up 
or voted down.) His avowed mission is impressing 
the 'pubhc heart' to care nothing about it. . . . For 
years he has labored to prove it a sacred right of white 
men to take negro slaves into the new Territories. 
Can he possibly show that it is less a sacred right to 
buy them where they can be bought cheapest? And 
unquestionably they can be bought cheaper in Africa 
than in Virginia. He has done all in his power to 
reduce the whole question of slavery to one of a mere 
right of property." 

Lincoln was determined that the issue should not be 
misunderstood by the people; that the claim made that 
Senator Douglas had changed his political views and 
that he was entitled to change them should not fool 



248 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

the people, and upon that proposition he said, in para- 
graph 17: 

"Senator Douglas holds, we know, that a man may 
rightfully be wiser to-day than he was yesterday — that 
he may rightfully change when he finds himself wrong. 
. . . But clearly, he is not now with us — he does not 
pretend to be — he does not promise ever to be." 

Lincoln then closes with paragraph 18, which is so 
important in public leadership on great questions to- 
day that it cannot be too often repeated. He says: 

''Our cause, then, must be intrusted to, and con- 
ducted by, its own undoubted friends — those whose 
hands are free, whose hearts are in the work, who do 
care for the result. . . . Did we brave all then (two 
years ago) to falter now ? — now, when that same enemy 
is wavering, dissevered, and belligerent? The result 
is not doubtful. We shall not fail — if we stand firm, 
we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate or 
mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is 
sure to come." 



CHAPTER XVIII 
LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 

When is a defeat not a defeat? 

Lincoln'vS fight for the faith of the fathers in " arresting 
the further spread of slavery," in placing slavery where 
it was "in the course of ultimate extinction," had only 
begun. 

Temporarily it was in abeyance, but as we shall soon 
see, the smouldering fires would inevitably break forth 
in the great contest that was unavoidable — the cam- 
paign of 1860. 

The real disaster was not to Lincoln's poUtical pros- 
pects, but really to his financial. In a letter to Chair- 
man Judd of the Republican State Committee, written 
at the close of that campaign in 1858, Lincoln said: 

' ' I have been on expense so long, without earning 
anything, that I am absolutely without monej^ now 
for even household expenses. Still, if you can put in 
S250 for me towards discharging the debt of the com- 
mittee, I will allow it when you and I settle the private 
matter between us. This, with what I have already 
paid, with an outstanding note of mine, will exceed my 
subscription of $500. This, too, is exclusive of my 
ordinary expenses during the campaign, all of which, 
being added to my loss of time and business, bears 
pretty heavily upon one no better off than I am. But 
as I had the post of honor, it is not for me to be over- 
nice." 



250 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Herndon, in speaking of his financial situation at 
this time, says : * 

"At the time this letter was written his property 
consisted of the house and lot on which he lived, a few 
law books and some household furniture. He owned 
a small tract of land in Iowa which yielded him noth- 
ing, and the annual income from his law practice did 
not exceed $3,000." 

During the following winter Lincoln prepared a lec- 
ture on ''inventions." After delivering it two or three 
times it proved such a flat failure that he abandoned 
the lecture platform. 

Mr. Henry C. Whitney writes: 

"I read in the paper that he had come to either 
Bloomington or Chnton to lecture, and no one turned 
out. The paper added 'that doesn't look much like 
his being President.' I once joked him about it; he 
said good naturedly, 'Don't, that plagues me.'" 

In October, 1859, he received an invitation to go to 
New York City to deliver a lecture. He accepted the 
invitation from New York with the suggestion that he 
would deliver a speech on the political questions of 
the day some time in the following February. The 
original plan contemplated a lecture in Mr. Beecher's 
church in Brooklyn. The change of subject and the 
change in the spirit of the times led to a choice of 
Cooper Institute, where the speech was finally given 
under the auspices of the Young Men's Republican 
Club. 

As was Lincoln's habit in the preparation of all his 
public addresses, he devoted himself enthusiastically 
and painstakingly to the preparation of this speech. 
He was, in a popular phrase, to invade the "enemy's 
country." 

* Vol. II, page 157. 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 251 

The culture and scholarship of the East had not been 
very kindly disposed to the awkward and unschooled 
"Big Giant" of IlUnois. 

Seward, the scholar, the statesman, of broad culture 
and distinguished public service as governor of the 
Empire State, and then representing that State in the 
United States Senate, was the idol of the East. 

To pave the way for his friends who were already 
organizing for his nomination at Chicago, as the Re- 
publican candidate for President, Lincoln spared 
neither time nor effort in the preparation of the Cooper 
Union address, which for pohtical logic, plain, per- 
suasive phrase, bottomed upon indisputable historic 
fact, has never been excelled. It was to be for the 
East what the Springfield speech of 1858 was for the 
West. 

Dressed in a new but ill-fitting suit of clothes, Mr. 
Lincoln arrived in New York. Probably there never 
assembled in that great city a more representative 
audience, in party prominence, general scholarship, 
business success, and the great middle class from all 
lines of industry and commerce, than the audience that 
packed the doors that night to hear the future Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

Wilham Cullen Bryant, then editor of the New York 
Evening Post, was the presiding officer. Among other 
things, in introducing Mr. Lincoln, he said : 

"It is a grateful office I perform in introducing to 
you an eminent citizen of the West, hitherto known to 
you only by reputation." 

For a fair, full, and forcible statement of the slavery 
question, as it then presented itself to the American 
people, upon the eve of a great national campaign, this 
speech is worthy of reproduction here. 

Senator Douglas, his old-time rival, in a speech at 



252 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Columbus, Ohio, delivered the previous fall, used this 
language: 

''Our Fathers when they framed the government 
under which we live, understood this question (the 
question of slavery) just as well, and even better, than 
we do now." 

This furnished the common ground between Douglas 
and Lincoln, who were the great poUtical leaders of the 
West, and led to Lincoln asking this question: Did that 
understanding of the fathers ''forbid the Federal Gov- 
ernment control as to slavery in our Federal terri- 
tories?" 

This great speech contains the best evidence of its 
own greatness as well as Lincoln's and is given here in 
full: 

address at cooper institute, new york, 
february 27, 1860 

"Mr. President and Fellow-Citizens of New 
York: The facts with which I shall deal this evening 
are mainly old and familiar; nor is there anything new 
in the general use I shall make of them. If there shall 
be any novelty, it will be in the mode of presenting the 
facts, and the inferences and observations following 
that presentation. In his speech last autumn at Co- 
lumbus, Ohio, as reported in the New York Times, 
Senator Douglas said: 

'"Our fathers, when they framed the government 
under which we live, understood this question just as 
well, and even better, than we do now.' 

"I fully indorse this, and I adopt it as a text for this 
discourse. I so adopt it because it furnishes a precise 
and an agreed starting-point for a discussion between 
RepubUcans and that wing of the Democracy headed 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 253 

by Senator Douglas. It simply leaves the inquiry: 
Wliat was the understanding those fathers had of the 
question mentioned ? 

"What is the frame of government under which we 
live? The answer must be, 'The Constitution of the 
United States.' That Constitution consists of the 
original, framed in 1787, and under which the present 
government first went into operation, and twelve sub- 
sequently framed amendments, the first ten of which 
were framed in 1789. 

"Who were our fathers that framed the Constitu- 
tion? I suppose the 'thirty-nine' who signed the 
original instrument may be fairly called our fathers 
who framed that part of the present government. It 
is almost exactly true to say they framed it, and it is 
altogether true to say they fairly represented the 
opinion and sentiment of the whole nation at that time. 
Their names, being familiar to nearly all, and accessible 
to quite all, need not now be repeated. 

"I take these 'thirty-nine,' for the present as being 
'our fathers who framed the government under which 
we live.' What is the question which, according to 
the text, those fathers understood 'just as well, and 
even better, than we do now'? 

"It is this: Does the proper division of local from 
Federal authority, or anything in the Constitution, 
forbid our Federal Government to control as to slavery 
in our Federal Territories? 

"Upon this. Senator Douglas holds the affirmative, 
and the Repubhcans the negative. This affirmation 
and denial form an issue; and this issue — this question 
— is precisely what the text declares our fathers under- 
stood 'better than we.' Let us now inquire whether 
the 'thirty-nine,' or any of them, ever acted upon this 



254 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

question; and if they did, how they acted upon it — 
how they expressed that better understanding. In 
1784, three years before the Constitution, the United 
States then owning the Northwestern Territory, and 
no other, the Congress of the Confederation had before 
them the question of prohibiting slavery in that Ter- 
ritory; and four of the 'thirty-nine' who afterward 
framed the Constitution were in that Congress, and 
voted on that question. Of these Roger Sherman, 
Thomas Mifflin and Hugh Williamson voted for the 
prohibition, thus showing that, in their understanding, 
no line dividing local from Federal authority, nor any- 
thing else, properly forbade the Federal Government 
control as to slavery in Federal territory. The other 
of the four, James McHenry, voted against the pro- 
hibition, showing that for some cause he thought it im- 
proper to vote for it. 

"In 1787, still before the Constitution, but while the 
convention was in session framing it, and while the 
Northwestern Territory still was the only Territory 
owned by the United States, the same question of pro- 
hibiting slavery in the Territory again came before the 
Congress of the Confederation; and two more of the 
'thirty-nine' who afterward signed the Constitution 
were in that Congress, and voted on the question. 
They were William Blount and William Few; and they 
both voted for the prohibition — thus showing that in 
their understanding no line dividing local from Federal 
authority, nor anything else, properly forbade the 
Federal Government to control as to slavery in Federal 
territory. This time the prohibition became a law, 
being part of what is now well known as the ordinance 
of '87. 

"The question of Federal control of slavery in the 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 255 

Territories seems not to have been directly before the 
convention which framed the original Constitution; 
and hence it is not recorded that the 'thirty-nine,' or 
any of them, while engaged on that instrument, ex- 
pressed any opinion on that precise question. 

"In 1789, by the first Congress which sat under 
the Constitution, an act was passed to enforce the 
ordinance of '87, including the prohibition of slavery 
in the Northwestern Territory. The bill for this act 
was reported by one of the ' thkty-nine' — Thomas 
Fitzsimmons, then a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives from Pennsylvania. It went through all 
its stages without a word of opposition, and finally 
passed both branches without ayes and nays, which 
is equivalent to a unanimous passage. In this Con- 
gress there were sixteen of the thirty-nine fathers who 
framed the original Constitution. They were John 
Langdon, Nicholas Oilman, Wm. S. Johnson, Roger 
Sherman, Robert Morris, Thos. Fitzsimmons, William 
Few, Abraham Baldwin, Rufus King, William Pater- 
son, George Clymer, Richard Bassett, George Read, 
Pierce Butler, Daniel Carroll and James Madison. 

''This shows that, in their understanding, no line 
dividing local from Federal authority, nor anything 
in the Constitution, properly forbade Congress to 
prohibit slavery in the Federal territory; else both 
their fideUty to correct principle, and their oath to 
support the Constitution, would have constrained 
them to oppose the prohibition. 

"Again, George Washington, another of the 'thirty- 
nine,' was then President of the United States and as 
such approved and signed the bill, thus completing 
its validity as a law, and thus showing that, in his 
understanding, no line dividing local from Federal 



256 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

authority, nor anything in the Constitution, forbade 
the Federal Government to control as to slavery in 
Federal territory. 

"No great while after the adoption of the original 
Constitution, North Carolina ceded to the Federal 
Government the country now constituting the State 
of Tennessee; and a few years later Georgia ceded 
that which now constitutes the States of Mississippi 
and Alabama. In both deeds of cession it was made a 
condition by the ceding States that the Federal Govern- 
ment should not prohibit slavery in the ceded coun- 
try. Besides this, slavery was then actually in the 
ceded country. Under these circumstances. Congress, 
on taking charge of these countries did not absolutely 
prohibit slavery within them. But they did interfere 
with it — take control of it — even there, to a certain 
extent. In 1798 Congress organized the Territory of 
Mississippi. In the act of organization they prohibited 
the bringing of slaves into the Territory from any place 
without the United States, by fine, and giving freedom 
to slaves so brought. This act passed both branches 
of Congress without yeas and nays. In that Congress 
were three of the ' thirty-nine ' who framed the original 
Constitution. They were John Langdon, George 
Read, and Abraham Baldwin. They all probably 
voted for it. Certainly they would have placed their 
opposition to it upon record if, in their understanding, 
any line dividing local from Federal authority, or any- 
thing in the Constitution, properly forbade the Federal 
Government to control as to slavery in Federal terri- 
tory. 

"In 1803 the Federal Government purchased the 
Louisiana country. Our former territorial acquisitions 
came from certain of our own States; but this Louisiana 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 257 

countrj^ was acquired from a foreign nation. In 1804 
Congress gave a territorial organization to that part of 
it which now constitutes the State of Louisiana. New 
Orleans, lying within that part, was an old and com- 
paratively large city. There were other considerable 
towns and settlements, and slavery was extensively and 
thoroughly intermingled with the people. Congress 
did not, in the Territorial Act, prohibit slavery; but 
they did interfere with it — take control of it — in a 
more marked and extensive way than they did in the 
case of Mississippi. The substance of the provision 
therein made in relation to slaves was: 

"1st. That no slave should be imported into the 
Territory from foreign parts. 

"2d. That no slave should be carried into it, who 
had been imported into the United States since the 
first day of May, 1798. 

"3d. That no slave should be carried into it, except 
by the owner, and for his own use as a settler; the 
penalty in all the cases being a fine upon the violator 
of the law, and freedom to the slave. 

"This act also was passed without ayes or nays. 
In the Congress which passed it there were two of the 
'thirty-nine.' They were Abraham Baldwin and 
Jonathan Dayton. As stated in the case of Mississippi, 
it is probable they both voted for it. They would not 
have allowed it to pass without recording their opposi- 
tion to it if, in their understanding, it violated either 
the line properly dividing local from Federal authority, 
or any provision of the Constitution. 

"In 1819-20 came and passed the Missouri ques- 
tion. Many votes were taken, by yeas and nays, in 
both branches of Congress, upon the various phases 
of the general question. Two of the 'thirty-nine' — 



258 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Rufus King and Charles Pinckney — were members 
of that Congress. Mr. King steadily voted for slavery 
prohibition and against all compromises, while Mr. 
Pinckney as steadily voted against slavery prohibi- 
tion and against all compromises. By this Mr. King 
showed that, in his understanding, no line dividing 
local from Federal authority, nor anything in the Con- 
stitution, was violated by Congress prohibiting slavery 
in Federal territory; while Mr. Pinckney, by his votes, 
showed that, in his understanding, there was some 
sufficient reason for opposing such prohibition in that 
case. 

"The cases I have mentioned are the only acts of 
the 'thirty-nine,' or of any of them, upon the direct 
issue, which I have been able to discover. 

''To enumerate the persons who thus acted as being 
four in 1784, two in 1787, seventeen in 1789, three in 
1798, two in 1804, and two in 1819-20, there would 
be thu'ty of them. But this would be counting John 
Langdon, Roger Sherman, William Few, Rufus King, 
and George Read each twice, and Abraham Baldwin 
three times. The true number of those of the ' thirty- 
nine ' whom I have shown to have acted upon the ques- 
tion which, by the text, they understood better than 
we, is twenty-three, leaving sixteen now shown to 
have acted upon it in any way. 

"Here, then, we have twenty-three out of our thirty- 
nine fathers 'who framed the government under which 
we five,' who have, upon their official responsibihty 
and their corporal oaths, acted upon the very question 
which the text affirms they 'understood just as well, 
and even better, than we do now'; and twenty-one 
of them — a clear majority of the whole 'thirty-nine' — 
so acting upon it as to make them guilty of gross polit- 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 259 

ical impropriety and wilful perjury if, in their under- 
standing, any proper division between local and Federal 
authority, or anything in the Constitution they had 
made themselves, and sworn to support, forbade the 
Federal Government to control as to slavery in the 
Federal Territories. Thus the twenty-one acted; and, 
as actions speak louder than words, so actions under 
such responsibility speak still louder. 

''Two of the twenty-three voted against congres- 
sional prohibition of slavery in the Federal Territories, 
in the instances in which they acted upon the question. 
But for what reasons they so voted is not known. They 
may have done so because they thought a proper divi- 
sion of local from Federal authority, or some provision 
or principle of the Constitution, stood in the way; or 
they may, without any such question, have voted 
against the prohibition on what appeared to them to 
be sufficient grounds of expediency. No one who has 
sworn to support the Constitution can conscientiously 
vote for what he understands to be an unconstitutional 
measure, however expedient he may think it; but 
one may and ought to vote against a measure which 
he deems constitutional if, at the same time, he deems 
it inexpedient. It, therefore, would be unsafe to set 
down even the two who voted against the prohibition 
as having done so because, in their understanding, any 
proper division of local from Federal authority, or 
anything in the Constitution, forbade the Federal Gov- 
ernment to control as to slavery in Federal territory. 

''The remaining sixteen of the 'thirty-nine,' so far 
as I have discovered, have left no record of their un- 
derstanding upon the direct question of Federal control 
of slavery in the Federal Territories. But there is 
much reason to believe that their understanding upon 



260 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

that question would not have appeared dififerent from 
that of their twenty-three compeers, had it been mani- 
fest at all. 

"For the purpose of adhering rigidly to the text, I 
have purposely omitted whatever understanding may 
have been manifested by any person, however dis- 
tinguished, other than the thirty-nine fathers who 
framed the original Constitution; and, for the same 
reason, I have also omitted whatever understanding 
may have been manifested by any of the ' thirty-nine ' 
even on any other phase of the general question of 
slavery. If we should look into their acts and declara- 
tions on those other phases, as the foreign slave-trade, 
and the morahty and pohcy of slavery generally, it 
would appear to us that on the direct question of 
Federal control of slavery in Federal Territories, the 
sixteen, if they had acted at all, would probably have 
acted just as the twenty- three did. Among that six- 
teen were several of the most noted antislavery men 
of those times, — as Dr. Frankhn, Alexander Hamilton, 
and Gouverneur Morris, — while there was not one 
now known to have been otherwise, unless it may be 
John Rutledge, of South Carolina. 

"The sum of the whole is that out of thirty-nine fa- 
thers who framed the original Constitution, twenty-one 
— a clear majority of the whole — certainly understood 
that no proper division of local from Federal authority, 
nor any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal 
Government to control slavery in the Federal Territo- 
ries; while all the rest had probably the same under- 
standing. Such unquestionably was the understanding 
of our fathers who framed the original Constitution; 
and the text affirms that they understood the question 
'better than we.' 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 261 

"But, so far, I have been considering the under- 
standing of the question manifested by the framers of 
the original Constitution. In and by the original in- 
strument, a mode was provided for amending it; and, 
as I have already stated, the present frame of 'the gov- 
ernment under which we live' consists of that original, 
and twelve amendatory articles framed and adopted 
since. Those who now insist that Federal control of 
slavery in Federal Territories violates the Constitution, 
point us to the provisions which they suppose it thus 
violates; and, as I understand, they all fix upon pro- 
visions in these amendatory articles, and not in the 
original instrument. The Supreme Court, in the Dred 
Scott case, plant themselves upon the Fifth Amend- 
ment, which provides that no person shall be deprived 
of "hfe, liberty, or property without due process of 
law ' ; while Senator Douglas and his peculiar adherents 
plant themselves upon the Tenth Amendment, provid- 
ing that ' the powers not delegated to the United States 
by the Constitution' 'are reserved to the States re- 
spectively, or to the people.' 

"Now, it so happens that these amendments were 
framed by the first Congress which sat under the Con- 
stitution — the identical Congress which passed the 
act, already mentioned, enforcing the prohibition of 
slavery in the Northwestern Territory. Not only was 
it the same Congress, but they were the identical, same 
individual men who, at the same session, and at the 
same time within the session, had under consideration, 
and in progress toward maturity, these constitutional 
amendments, and this act prohibiting slavery in all the 
territory the nation then owned. The constitutional 
amendments were introduced before, and passed after, 
the act enforcing the ordinance of '87; so that, during 



262 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

the whole pendency of the act to enforce the ordinance, 
the constitutional amendments were also pending. 

"The seventy-six members of that Congress, includ- 
ing sixteen of the framers of the original Constitution, 
as before stated, were preeminently our fathers who 
framed that part of 'the government under which we 
live' which is now claimed as forbidding the Federal 
Government to control slavery in the Federal Terri- 
tories. 

"Is it not a httle presumptuous in any one at this 
day to affirm that the two things which that Congress 
deliberately framed, and carried to maturity at the 
same time, are absolutely inconsistent with each other ? 
And does not such affirmation become impudently ab- 
surd when coupled with the other affirmation, from the 
same mouth, that those who did the two things alleged 
to be inconsistent, understood whether they really were 
inconsistent better than we — better than he who affirms 
that they are inconsistent? 

"It is surely safe to assume that the thirty-nine 
framers of the original Constitution, and the seventy- 
six members of the Congress which framed the amend- 
ments thereto, taken together, do certainly include 
those who may be fairly called ' our fathers who framed 
the government under which we live.' And so assum- 
ing, I defy any man to show that any one of them ever, 
in his whole fife, declared that, in his understanding, 
any proper division of local from Federal authority, 
or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal 
Government to control as to slavery in the Federal 
Territories. I go a step further. I defy any one to 
show that any living man in the whole world ever did, 
prior to the beginning of the present century (and I 
might almost say prior to the beginning of the last half 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 263 

of the present century), declare that, in his understand- 
ing, any proper division of local from Federal authority, 
or any part of the Constitution, forbade the Federal 
Government to control as to slavery in the Federal 
Territories. To those who now so declare I give not 
only 'our fathers who framed the government under 
which we live/ but with them all other living men 
within the century in which it was framed, among 
whom to search, and they shall not be able to find the 
evidence of a single man agreeing with them. 

"Now, and here, let me guard a httle against being 
misunderstood. I do not mean to say we are bound 
to follow implicitly in whatever our fathers did. To 
do so would be to discard all the lights of current ex- 
perience — to reject all progress, all improvement. 
What I do say is that if we would supplant the opinions 
and pohcy of our fathers in any case, we should do so 
upon evidence so conclusive, and argument so clear, 
that even their great authority, fairly considered and 
weighed, cannot stand; and most surely not in a case 
whereof we ourselves declare they understood the 
question better than we. 

"If any man at this day sincerely beheves that a 
proper division of local from Federal authority, or any 
part of the Constitution, forbids the Federal Govern- 
ment to control as to slavery in the Federal Territories, 
he is right to say so, and to enforce his position by all 
truthful evidence and fair argument which he can. 
But he has no right to mislead others, who have less 
access to history, and less leisure to study it, into the 
false beUef that 'our fathers who framed the govern- 
ment under which we live' were of the same opinion — 
thus substituting falsehood and deception for truthful 
evidence and fair argument. If any man at this day 



264 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

sincerely believes 'our fathers who framed the govern- 
ment under which we live ' used and applied principles, 
in other cases, which ought to have led them to under- 
stand that a proper division of local from Federal 
authority, or some part of the Constitution, forbids the 
Federal Government to control as to slavery in the 
Federal Territories, he is right to say so. But he 
should, at the same time, brave the responsibility of 
declaring that, in his opinion, he understands their 
principles better than they did themselves; and espe- 
cially should he not shirk that responsibility by assert- 
ing that they 'understood the question just as well, 
and even better, than we do now.' 

''But enough ! Let all who beheve that 'our fathers 
who framed the government under which we live under- 
stood this question just as well, and even better than 
we do now,' speak as they spoke, and act as they acted 
upon it. This is all Republicans ask — all Republicans 
desire — in relation to slavery. As those fathers marked 
it, so let it be again marked, as an evil not to be ex- 
tended, but to be tolerated and protected only because 
of and so far as its actual presence among us makes 
that toleration and protection a necessity. Let all the 
guaranties those fathers gave it be not grudgingly, but 
fully and fairly, maintained. For this Republicans 
contend, and with this, so far as I know or believe, they 
will be content. 

"And now, if they would listen, — as I suppose they 
will not, — I would address a few words to the Southern 
people. 

"I would say to them: You consider yourselves a 
reasonable and a just people; and I consider that in the 
general qualities of reason and justice you are not in- 
ferior to any other people. Still when you speak of us 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 265 

Republicans, you do so only to denounce us as reptiles, 
or, at the best, as no better than outlaws. You will 
grant a hearing to pirates or murderers, but nothing 
like it to 'Black Repubhcans.' In all your contentions 
with one another, each of you deems an unconditional 
condemnation of 'Black Republicanism' as the first 
thing to be attended to. Indeed, such condemnation 
of us seems to be an indispensable prerequisite — license, 
so to speak — among you to be admitted or permitted 
to speak at all. Now can you or not be prevailed upon 
to pause and to consider whether this is quite just to 
us, or even to yourselves ? Bring forward your charges 
and specifications, and then be patient long enough 
to hear us deny or justify. 

''You say we are sectional. We deny it. That 
makes an issue; and the burden of proof is upon you. 
You produce your proof; and what is it? Why, that 
our party has no existence in your section — gets no 
votes in your section. The fact is substantially true; 
but does it prove the issue? If it does, then in case 
we should, without change of principle, begin to get 
votes in your section, we should thereby cease to be 
sectional. You cannot escape this conclusion; and yet, 
are you willing to abide by it? If you are, you will 
probably soon find that we have ceased to be sectional, 
for we shall get votes in your section this very year. 
You will then begin to discover, as the truth plainly is, 
that your proof does not touch the issue. The fact 
that we get no votes in your section is a fact of your 
making, and not of ours. And if there be fault in that 
fact, that fault is primarily yours, and remains so until 
you show that we repel you by some wrong principle 
or practice. If we do repel you by any wrong principle 
or practice, the fault is ours; but this brings you to 



266 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

where you ought to have started — to a discussion of 
the right or wrong of our principle. If our principle, 
put in practice, would wrong your section for the 
benefit of ours, or for any other object, then our prin- 
ciple, and we with it, are sectional, and are justly op- 
posed and denounced as such. Meet us, then, on the 
question of whether our principle, put in practice, 
would wrong your section; and so meet us as if it were 
possible that something may be said on oui* side. Do 
you accept the challenge ? No ! Then you really be- 
lieve that the principle which 'our fathers who framed 
the government under which we live ' thought so clearly 
right as to adopt it, and indorse it again and again, 
upon their official oaths, is in fact so clearly wrong as 
to demand yoxu- condemnation without a moment's 
consideration. 

"Some of you delight to flaunt in our faces the 
warning against sectional parties given by Washington 
in his Farewell Address. Less than eight years before 
Washington gave that warning, he had, as President 
of the United States, approved and signed an act of 
Congress enforcing the prohibition of slavery in the 
Northwestern Territory, which act embodied the policy 
of the government upon that subject up to and at the 
very moment he penned that warning; and about one 
year after he penned it, he wrote Lafayette that he 
considered that prohibition a wise measure, expressing 
in the same connection his hope that we should at 
some time have a confederacy of free States. 

"Bearing this in mind, and seeing that sectionahsm 
has since arisen upon this same subject, is that warning 
a weapon in your hands against us, or in our hands 
against you ? Could Washington himself speak, would 
he cast the blame of that sectionalism upon us, who 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 267 

sustain his policy, or upon you who repudiate it? We 
respect that warning of Washington, and we commend 
it to you, together with his example pointing to the 
right application of it. 

"But you say you are conservative — eminently con- 
servative — while we are revolutionary, destructive, or 
something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it 
not adherence to the old and tried, against the new 
and untried? We stick to, contend for, the identical 
old policy on the point in controversy which was 
adopted by 'our fathers who framed the government 
under which we live'; while you with one accord re- 
ject, and scout, and spit upon that old policy, and in- 
sist upon substituting something new. True, you 
disagree among yourselves as to what that substitute 
shall be. You are divided on new propositions and 
plans, but you are unanimous in rejecting and de- 
nouncing the old policy of the fathers. Some of you 
are for reviving the foreign slave-trade; some for a 
congressional slave code for the Territories; some for 
Congress forbidding the Territories to prohibit slavery 
in the Territories through the judiciary; some for the 
*gur-reat pur-rinciple ' that 'if one man would enslave 
another, no third man should object,' fantastically 
called 'popular sovereignty'; but never a man among 
you is in favor of Federal prohibition of slavery in 
Federal Territories, according to the practice of 'our 
fathers who framed the government under which we 
live.' Not one of all your various plans can show a 
precedent or an advocate in the century within which 
our government originated. Consider, then, whether 
your claim of conservatism for yourselves, and your 
charge of destructiveness against us, are based on the 
most clear and stable foundations. 



268 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

''Again, you say we have made the slavery question 
more prominent than it formerly was. We deny it. 
We admit that it is more prominent, but we deny that 
we made it so. It was not we, but you, who discarded 
the old policy of the fathers. We resisted, and still 
resist, your innovation; and thence comes the greater 
prominence of the question. Would you have that 
question reduced to its former proportions? Go back 
to that old policy. What has been will be again, under 
the same conditions. If you would have the peace of 
the old times, readopt the precepts and pohcy of the 
old times. 

''You charge that we stir up insurrections among 
your slaves. We deny it; and what is your proof? 
'Harper's Ferry! John Brown!' John Brown was 
no Repubhcan; and you have failed to imphcate a 
single Republican in his Harper's Ferry enterprise. 
If any member of our party is guilty in that matter, 
you know it, or you do not know it. If you do know 
it, you are inexcusable for not designating the man 
and proving the fact. If you do not know it, you are 
inexcusable for asserting it, and especially for persist- 
ing in the assertion after you have tried and failed to 
make the proof. You need not be told that persisting 
in a charge which one does not know to be true, is 
simply malicious slander. 

"Some of you admit that no Republican designedly 
aided or encouraged the Harper's Ferry affair, but still 
insist that our doctrines and declarations necessarily 
lead to such results. We do not believe it. We know 
we hold no doctrine, and make no declaration, which 
were not held to and made by ' our fathers who framed 
the government under which we live.' You never 
dealt fairly by us in relation to this affair. When it 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 269 

occurred, some important State elections were near 
at hand, and you were in evident glee with the belief 
that, by charging the blame upon us, you could get 
an advantage of us in those elections. The elections 
came, and your expectations were not quite fulfilled. 
Every RepubUcan man knew that, as to himself at 
least, your charge was a slander, and he was not much 
inclined by it to cast his vote in your favor. Republican 
doctrines and declarations are accompanied with a 
continual protest against any interference whatever 
with your slaves, or with you about your slaves. Surely 
this does not encourage them to revolt. True, we do, 
in conamon with 'our fathers who framed the govern- 
ment under which we live,' declare our belief that 
slavery is wrong; but the slaves do not hear us declare 
even this. For anything we say or do, the slaves would 
scarcely know there is a Repubhcan party. I believe 
they would not, in fact, generally know it but for 
your misrepresentations of us in their hearing. In 
your pohtical contests among yourselves, each faction 
charges the other with sympathy with Black Repub- 
licanism; and then, to give point to the charge, de- 
fines Black Republicanism to simply be insurrection, 
blood, and thunder among the slaves. 

''Slave insurrections are no more common now than 
they were before the Repubhcan party was organized. 
What induced the Southampton insurrection, twenty- 
eight years ago, in which at least three times as many 
lives were lost as at Harper's Ferry? You can scarcely 
stretch your very elastic fancy to the conclusion that 
Southampton was 'got up by Black Repubhcanism.' 
In the present state of things in the United States, I 
do not think a general, or even a very extensive, slave 
insurrection is possible. The indispensable concert of 



270 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

action cannot be attained. The slaves have no means 
of rapid communication; nor can incendiary freemen, 
black or white, supply it. The explosive materials 
are everywhere in parcels; but there neither are, nor 
can be suppUed, the indispensable connecting trains. 

"Much is said by Southern people about the affec- 
tion of slaves for their masters and mistresses; and a 
part of it, at least, is true. A plot for an uprising could 
scarcely be devised and communicated to twenty in- 
dividuals before some one of them, to save the life 
of a favorite master or mistress, would divulge it. This 
is the rule, and the slave revolution in Hayti was not 
an exception to it, but a case occurring under peculiar 
circumstances. The gunpowder plot of British history, 
though not connected with slaves, was more in point. 
In that case, only about twenty were admitted to the 
secret; and yet one of them, in his anxiety to save a 
friend, betrayed the plot to that friend, and, by con- 
sequence, averted the calamity. Occasional poisonings 
from the kitchen, and open or stealthy assassinations 
in the field, and local revolts extending to a score or 
so, will continue to occur as the natural results of 
slavery; but no general insurrection of slaves, as I 
think, can happen in this country for a long time. Who- 
ever much fears, or much hopes, for such an event, 
will be alike disappointed. 

''In the language of Mr. Jefferson, uttered many 
years ago, 'It is still in our power to direct the process 
of emancipation and deportation peaceably, and in 
such slow degrees, as that the evil will wear off insen- 
sibly; and their places be, -pari passu, filled up by free 
white laborers. If, on the contrary, it is left to force 
itself on, human nature must shudder at the prospect 
held up.' 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 271 

"Mr. Jefferson did not mean to say, nor do I, that 
the power of emancipation is in the Federal Govern- 
ment. He spoke of Virginia; and, as to the power of 
emancipation, I speak of the slave-holding States only. 
The Federal Government, however, as we insist, has 
the power of restraining the extension of the institu- 
tion — the power to insure that a slave insurrection 
shall never occur on any American soil which is now 
free from slavery. 

"John Brown's effort was peculiar. It was not a 
slave insurrection. It was an attempt by white men 
to get up a revolt among slaves, in which the slaves 
refused to participate. In fact, it was so absurd that 
the slaves, with all their ignorance, saw plainly enough 
it could not succeed. That affair, in its philosophy, 
corresponds with the many attempts, related in 
history, at the assassination of kings and emperors. 
An enthusiast broods over the oppression of a people 
till he fancies himself commissioned by Heaven to 
liberate them. He ventures the attempt, which ends 
in little else than his own execution. Orsini's attempt 
on Louis Napoleon, and John Brown's attempt at 
Harper's Ferry, were, in their philosophy, precisely 
the same. The eagerness to cast blame on old Eng- 
land in the one case, and on New England in the other, 
does not disfH'ove the sameness of the two things. 

"And how much would it avail you, if you could, 
by the use of John Brown, Helper's Book, and the like 
break up the Republican organization? Human action 
can be modified to some extent, but human nature 
cannot be changed. There is a judgment and a feeling 
against slavery in this nation, which cast at least a 
million and a half of votes. You cannot destroy that 
judgment and feeling — that sentiment — by breaking 



272 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

up the political organization which raUies around it. 
You can scarcely scatter and disperse an army which 
has been formed into order in the face of your heaviest 
fire; but if you could, how much would you gain by 
forcing the sentiment which created it out of the peace- 
ful channel of the ballot-box into some other channel? 
What would that other channel probably be? Would 
the number of John Browns be lessened or enlarged by 
the operation? 

"But you will break up the Union rather than sub- 
mit to a denial of your constitutional rights. 

''That has a somewhat reckless sound; but it would 
be palhated, if not fully justified, were we proposing, 
by the mere force of numbers, to deprive you of some 
right plainly wTitten down in the Constitution. But 
we are proposing no such thing. 

"When you make these declarations you have a 
specific and well-understood allusion to an assumed 
constitutional right of yours to take slaves into the 
Federal Territories, and to hold them there as property. 
But no such right is specifically written in the Consti- 
tution. That instrument is hterally silent about any 
such right. We, on the contrary, deny that such a 
right has any existence in the Constitution, even by 
imphcation. 

"Your purpose, then, plainly stated, is-that you will 
destroy the government, unless you be allowed to 
construe and force the Constitution as you please, on 
all points in dispute between you and us. You will 
rule or ruin in all events. 

"This, plainly stated, is your language. Perhaps 
you will say the Supreme Court has decided the dis- 
puted constitutional question in your favor. Not quite 
so. But waiving the lawyer's distinction between die- 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 273 

turn and decision, the court has decided the question 
for you in a sort of way. The court has substantially 
said, it is your constitutional right to take slaves into 
the Federal Territories, and to hold them there as 
property. When I say the decision was made in a 
sort of wa}^ I mean it was made in a divided court, by 
a bare majority of the judges, and they not quite agree- 
ing with one another in the reasons for making it; that 
it is so made as that its avowed supporters disagree 
with one another about its meaning, and that it was 
mainly based upon a mistaken statement of fact — the 
statement in the opinion that ' the right of property in 
a slave is distinctly and expressly affirmed in the Con- 
stitution.' 

"An inspection of the Constitution will show that 
the right of property in a slave is not 'distinctly and 
expressly affirmed' in it. Bear in mind, the judges do 
not pledge their judicial opinion that such right is im- 
pliedly affirmed in the Constitution; but they pledge 
their veracity that it is 'distinctly and expressly' 
affirmed there — 'distinctly,' that is, not mingled with 
anything else — 'expressly,' that is, in words meaning 
just that, without the aid of any inference, and sus- 
ceptible of no other meaning. 

"If they had only pledged their judicial opinion that 
such right is affirmed in the instrument by implication, 
it would be open to others to show that neither the 
word 'slave' nor 'slavery' is to be found in the Con- 
stitution, nor the word 'property' even, in any con- 
nection with language alluding to the things slave or 
slavery; and that wherever in that instrument the 
slave is alluded to, he is called a 'person'; and wher- 
ever his master's legal right in relation to him is alluded 
to, it is spoken of as 'service or labor which may be 



274 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

due' — as a debt payable in service or labor. Also it 
would be open to show, by contemporaneous history, 
that this mode of alluding to slaves and slavery, in- 
stead of speaking of them, was employed on purpose to 
exclude from the Constitution the idea that there 
could be property in man. 

''To show all this is easy and certain. 

"When this obvious mistake of the judges shall be 
brought to their notice, is it not reasonable to expect 
that they will withdraw the mistaken statement, and 
reconsider the conclusion based upon it? 

"And then it is to be remembered that 'our fathers 
who framed the government under which we live' — 
the men who made the Constitution — decided this 
same constitutional question in our favor long ago: 
decided it without division among themselves when 
making the decision; without division among them- 
selves about the meaning of it after it was made, and, 
so far as any evidence is left, without basing it upon 
any mistaken statement of facts. 

"Under all these circumstances, do you really feel 
yourselves justified to break up this government unless 
such a court decision as yours is shall be at once sub- 
mitted to as a conclusive and final rule of political 
action? But you will not abide the election of a Re- 
publican president ! In that supposed event, you say, 
you will destroy the Union; and then, you say, the great 
crime of having destroyed it will be upon us. That is 
cool. A highwayman holds a pistol to my ear, and 
mutters through his teeth, 'Stand and deliver, or I 
shall kill you, and then you will be a murderer ! ' 

"To be sure, what the robber demanded of me — my 
money — was my own; and I had a clear right to keep 
it; but it was no more my own than my vote is my 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 275 

own; and the threat of death to me, to extort my 
money, and the threat of destruction of the Union, to 
extort my vote, can scarcely be distinguished in prin- 
ciple. 

"A few words now to RepubUcans. It is exceedingly 
desirable that all parts of this great Confederacy shall 
be at peace, and in harmony one with another. Let 
us Republicans do our part to have it so. Even though 
much provoked, let us do nothing through passion and 
ill temper. Even though the Southern people will not 
so much as listen to us, let us calmly consider their de- 
mands, and yield to them if, in our deliberate view of 
our duty, we possibly can. Judging by all they say 
and do, and by the subject and nature of their contro- 
versy with us, let us determine, if we can, what will 
satisfy them. 

"Will they be satisfied if the Territories be uncondi- 
tionally surrendered to them ? We know they will not. 
In all their present complaints against us, the Terri- 
tories are scarcely mentioned. Invasions and insur- 
rections are the rage now. Will it satisfy them if, in 
the future, we have nothing to do with invasions and 
insurrections? We know it will not. We so know, 
because we know we never had anything to do with 
invasions and insurrections; and yet this total abstain- 
ing does not exempt us from the charge and the de- 
nunciation. 

"The question recurs. What will satisfy them? 
Simply this: we must not only let them alone, but we 
must somehow convince them that we do let them 
alone. This, we know by experience, is no easy task. 
We have been so trying to convince them from the very 
beginning of our organization, but with no success. In 
all our platforms and speeches we have constantly pro- 



276 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

tested our purpose to let them alone; but this has had 
no tendency to convince them. Alike unavailing to 
convince them is the fact that they have never detected 
a man of us in any attempt to disturb them. 

''These natural and apparently adequate means all 
failing, what will convince them ? This, and this only : 
cease to call slavery wrong, and join them in calhng it 
right. And this must be done thoroughly — done in 
acts as well as in words. Silence will not be tolerated 
— we must place om-selves avowedly with them. Sen- 
ator Douglas's new sedition law must be enacted and 
enforced, suppressing all declarations that slavery is 
wrong, whether made in pohtics, in presses, in pulpits, 
or in private. We must arrest and return fugitive 
slaves with greedy pleasure. We must pull down our 
free-State constitutions. The whole atmosphere must 
be disinfected from all taint of opposition to slavery, 
before they will cease to believe that all their troubles 
proceed from us. 

"I am quite aware they do not state their case pre- 
cisely in this way. Most of them would probably say 
to us, 'Let us alone; do nothing to us, and say what 
you please about slavery.' But we do let them alone, 
— have never disturbed them, — so that, after all, it is 
what we say which dissatisfies them. They will con- 
tinue to accuse us of doing, until we cease saying. 

"I am also aware they have not as yet in terms de- 
manded the overthrow of our free-State constitutions. 
Yet those constitutions declare the wrong of slavery 
with more solemn emphasis than do all other sayings 
against it; and when all these other sayings shall have 
been silenced, the overthrow of these constitutions will 
be demanded, and nothing be left to resist the demand. 
It is nothing to the contrary that they do not demand 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 277 

the whole of this just now. Demanding what they do, 
and for the reason they do, they can voluntarily stop 
nowhere short of this consummation. Holding, as they 
do, that slavery is morally right and socially elevating, 
they cannot cease to demand a full national recognition 
of it as a legal right and a social blessing. 

''Nor can we justifiably withhold this on any ground 
save our conviction that slavery is wrong. If slavery 
is right, all words, acts, laws, and constitutions against 
it are themselves wrong and should be silenced and 
swept away. If it is right, we cannot justly object to 
its nationality, — its universality; if it is wrong, they 
cannot justly insist upon its extension — its enlarge- 
ment. All they ask we could readily grant, if we 
thought slavery right; all we ask they could as readily 
grant, if they thought it wrong. Their thinking it 
right and our thinking it wrong is the precise fact upon 
which depends the whole controversy. Thinking it 
right, as they do, they are not to blame for desiring its 
full recognition as being right; but thinking it wrong, 
as we do, can we yield to them? Can we cast our 
votes with their view, and against our own ? In view 
of our moral, social, and political responsibilities, can 
we do this? 

"Wrong as we think slavery is, we can yet afford 
to let it alone where it is, because that much is due to 
the necessity arising from its actual presence in the 
nation; but can we, while our votes will prevent it, 
allow it to spread into the national Territories, and 
to overrun us here in these free States? If our sense 
of duty forbids this, then let us stand by our duty 
fearlessly and effectively. Let us be diverted by none 
of those sophistical contrivances wherewith we are 
so industriously plied and belabored — contrivances 



278 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

such as groping for some middle ground between the 
right and the wrong: vain as the search for a man 
who should be neither a living man nor a dead man; 
such as a policy of 'don't care' on a question about 
which all true men do care; such as Union appeals 
beseeching true Union men to yield to Disunionists, 
reversing the divine rule, and calling, not the sinners, 
but the righteous to repentance; such as invocations 
to Washington, imploring men to unsay what Wash- 
ington said and undo what Washington did. 

''Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false 
accusations against us, nor frightened from it by 
menaces of destruction to the government, nor of 
dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right 
makes might, and in that faith let us to the end dare 
to do our duty as we understand it." 

Holland, who wrote only five years after the de- 
livery of this speech, says concerning it: 

"The papers of the city were full of his address and 
with comments upon it the next day. The Illinois 
lawyer was a hon. Critics read the speech, and mar- 
velled at its pure and compact Enghsh, its felicity of 
statement and its faultless logic. It was read during 
the day not only by New York but by nearly all New 
England." 

Greeley wrote of Lincoln's Cooper Institute speech: 

"I do not hesitate to pronounce Mr. Lincoln's speech 
at Cooper Institute at New York in the spring of 1860 
the very best political address to which I have ever 
listened, and I have heard some of Webster's grandest. 
As a literary effort it would not of course bear com- 
parison with many of Webster's speeches; but re- 
garded simply as an effort to convince the largest pos- 
sible number that they ought to be on the speaker's 



LINCOLN AT COOPER UNION 279 

side, and not on the other, I do not hesitate to pro- 
nounce it unsurpassed." 

Shortly thereafter he made a tour through New 
England, speaking in Rhode Island, Connecticut, and 
New Hampshire. His tour was a continued triumph, 
and doubtless had much to do with his nomination 
for the presidency at Chicago in the following June. 

The other day I met my old friend. General Robert 
P. Kennedy of Bellefontaine, Ohio. In 1860 he was 
a student at Yale College, New Haven, and heard 
Mr. Lincoln make his great speech in that city. He 
told me what a wonderful impression the speech made 
upon him as a college youth, and how distinctly he 
remembered a few of the sentences of that speech, 
which are not contained in the official report, but which 
I have no doubt Abraham Lincoln delivered, because 
the language and thought is so clearly Lincolnesque. 

''I hold this truth to be self evident: What is right 
in Connecticut is right in South Carolina. What is 
wTong in Connecticut is wrong in South Carolina. I 
hold human slavery to be wrong in Connecticut and 
I hold human slavery to be wrong, eternally wrong, 
in South CaroHna." 



CHAPTER XIX 
LINCOLN'S FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 

The time— 1 p. m., March 4, 1861. The place- 
east portico of Capitol, Washington, D. C. The as- 
semblage — President Buchanan, judges of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, United States senators, 
members of the House of Representatives, governors 
of the States, foreign ambassadors and diplomats, 
heads of governmental departments, and a great crowd 
of political admirers and adversaries gathered to see 
and hear the new President of the United States. 

Three of the nation's most distinguished men 
representing the three great departments of the govern- 
ment stood in the foreground of this immortal assem- 
blage: Abraham Lincoln, the chief executive elect, 
Roger B. Taney, the chief justice of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, Stephen A. Douglas, a 
leading member of the United States Senate and de- 
feated Democratic candidate for the presidency of 
the United States, standing at Lincoln's side, holding 
his hat. 

We are reminded here of 1858 when these same 
three persons were in the limelight of the pohtical 
arena, not because conditions are the same, but, upon 
the contrary, because they are so different. Then 
Douglas was the victor, Lincoln the vanquished; 
Taney, through the Dred Scott decision, vindicated. 
To-day, Douglas was the vanquished, Lincoln the 
victor, and Taney was regretfully administering the 

280 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 281 

oath of office to the new President of the United States, 
Abraham Lincoln, of Ilhnois. 

Surely, the wheel of fate had pitilessly reversed the 
order of things in two and a half short years. 

The oath being administered, Lincoln began his re- 
markable inaugural address. But a few preliminary 
words should be written before we are ready for this 
address. 

Lincoln's mental make-up, with his experience as 
a lawyer and party leader, required him first of all to 
make a survey of the whole national situation, as it 
would present itself to hihi on the 4th of March, 1861. 
This he proceeded to do shortly after the election. 

What was to be the policy of the new administra- 
tion with reference to the political situation in which 
the new President would find himself upon taking the 
reins of power ? 

Again we see Lincoln taking his compass and chain 
and making his survey, through his first inaugural 
address — an address that dwelt on the most critical 
and difficult situation ever presented to an incoming 
President, whose sceptre of power was to be delayed 
for four months following his election. In the meantime 
one pohtical complication after another was develop- 
ing as fast as the daily press could record it. 

It will be interesting for the reader to know that 
that inaugural address, save the concluding paragraphs, 
was Lincoln's own. He prepared it in Springfield 
without assistance or consultation from either personal 
friend or pohtical adviser. 

Herndon, his law partner, furnishes the following 
very interesting account of the preparation of that 
address:* 

* Herndon, vol. II, p. 188. 



282 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

"Wlien, therefore, he began on his inaugural speech 
(late in January) he told me what works he intended 
to consult. I looked for a long Ust, but when he went 
over it I was greatly surprised. He asked me to furnish 
hun with Henry Clay's great speech delivered in 1850; 
Andrew Jackson's proclamation against Nullification; 
and a copy of the Constitution. He afterwards called 
for Webster's reply to Hayne, a speech which he read 
when he lived at New Salem, and which he always 
regarded as the grandest specimen of American ora- 
tory. With these few 'volumes,' and no further sources 
of reference, he locked himself up in a room upstairs over 
a store across the street from the State House, and 
there, cut off from all communication and intrusion, 
he prepared the address. Though composed amid 
the unromantic surroundings of a dingy, dusty, and 
neglected back room, the speech has become a memo- 
rable document. Posterity will assign to it a high rank 
among historical utterances; and it will ever bear 
comparison with the efforts of Washington, Jefferson, 
Adams, or any that preceded its delivery from the 
steps of the national Capitol." 

Once upon a time Herndon was asked what, if any- 
thing, he had to do with the preparation of that ad- 
dress, to which he repUed: 

''You don't understand Mr. Lincoln. No man ever 
asked less aid than he ; his confidence in his own ability 
to meet the requirements of every hour was so marked 
that his friends never thought of tendering their aid, 
and therefore no one could share his responsibihties. 
I never wrote a line for him; he never asked me to. 
I was never conscious of having exerted any influence 
over him. He often called out my views on some phil- 
osophical question, simplj^ because I was a fond student 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 283 

of philosophy, and conceding that I had given the sub- 
ject more attention than he; he often asked as to the 
use of a word or the turn of a sentence, but if I volun- 
teered to recommend or even suggest a change of lan- 
guage which involved a change of sentiment I found 
him the most inflexible man I have ever seen." 
The first inaugural address is as follows: 

"Fellow-Citizens of the United States: In compliance 
with a custom as old as the government itself, I appear 
before you to address you briefly, and to take in your 
presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the 
United States to be taken by the President before he 
enters on the execution of his office. 

"I do not consider it necessary at present for me to 
discuss those matters of administration about which 
there is no special anxiety or excitement. 

''Apprehension seems to exist among the people of 
the Southern States that by the accession of a Re- 
publican administration their property and their peace 
and personal security are to be endangered. There has 
never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. 
Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has 
all the while existed and been open to their inspection. 
It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him 
who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of 
those speeches when I declare that ' I have no purpose, 
directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution 
of slavery in the States where it exists. I beheve I 
have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination 
to do so.' Those who nominated and elected me did 
so with full knowledge that I had made this and many 
similar declarations, and had never recanted them. 

"And, more than this, they placed in the platform 



284 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to 
me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now 
read: 

'''Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the 
rights of the States, and especially the right of each 
State to order and control its own domestic institutions 
according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential 
to that balance of power on which the perfection and 
endurance of our political fabric depend, and we de- 
nounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil 
of any State or Territory, no matter under what pre- 
text, as among the gravest of crimes.' 

''I now reiterate these sentiments; and, in doing so, 
I only press upon the public attention the most con- 
clusive evidence of which the case is susceptible, that 
the property, peace, and security of no section are to 
be in any wise endangered by the now incoming ad- 
ministration. I add, too, that all the protection which, 
consistently with the Constitution and the laws, can 
be given, will be cheerfully given to all the States when 
lawfully demanded, for whatever cause — as cheerfully 
to one section as to another. 

''There is much controversy about the deUvering up 
of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now 
read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any 
other of its provisions: 

'''No person held to service or labor in one State, 
under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall in 
consequence of any law or regulation therein be dis- 
charged from such service or labor, but shall be deUv- 
ered up on claim of the party to whom such service or 
labor may be due.' 

"It is scarcely questioned that this provision was 
intended by those who made it for the reclaiming of 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 285 

what we call fugitive slaves; and the intention of the 
lawgiver is the law. All members of Congress swear 
their support to the whole Constitution — to this pro- 
vision as much as to any other. To the proposition, 
then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms of 
this clause 'shall be delivered up,' their oaths are 
unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort in 
good temper, could they not with nearly equal unanim- 
ity frame and pass a law by means of which to keep 
good that unanimous oath? 

''There is some difference of opinion whether this 
clause should be enforced by national or by State 
authority; but surely that difference is not a very ma- 
terial one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be 
of but little consequence to him or to others by which 
authority it is done. And should any one in any case 
be content that his oath shall go unkept on a merely 
unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept? 

"Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all 
the safeguards of liberty known in civilized and humane 
jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a freeman be 
not, in any case, surrendered as a slave? And might 
it not be well at the same time to provide by law for 
the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution 
which guarantees that 'the citizen of each State shall 
be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens 
in the several States ' ? 

"I take the official oath to-day with no mental reser- 
vations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitu- 
tion or laws by any hypercritical rules. And while I 
do not choose now to specify particular acts of Con- 
gress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will 
be much safer for all, both in official and private sta- 
tions, to conform to and abide by all those acts which 



286 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting 
to find impunity in having them held to be unconsti- 
tutional. 

"It is seventy- two years since the first inauguration 
of a President under our National Constitution. Dur- 
ing that period fifteen different and greatly distin- 
guished citizens have, in succession, administered the 
executive branch of the government. They have con- 
ducted it through many perils, and generally with great 
success. Yet, with all this scope of precedent, I now 
enter upon the same task for the brief constitutional 
term of four years under great and peculiar difficulty. 
A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only 
menaced, is now formidably attempted. 

"I hold that, in contemplation of universal law and 
of the Constitution, the Union of these States is per- 
petual. Perpetuity is implied, if not expressed, in the 
fundamental law of all national governments. It is 
safe to assert that no government proper ever had a 
provision in its organic law for its own termination. 

"Continue to execute all the express provisions of 
our National Constitution, and the Union will endure 
forever — it being impossible to destroy it except by 
some action not provided for in the instrument it- 
self. 

"Again, if the United States be not a government 
proper, but an association of States in the nature of 
contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably un- 
made by less than all the parties who made it? One 
party to a contract may violate it — break it, so to 
speak; but does it not require all to lawfully rescind it? 

"Descending from these general principles, we find 
the proposition that, in legal contemplation, the Union 
is perpetual confirmed by the history of the Union 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 287 

itself. The Union is much older than the Constitu- 
tion. It was formed, in fact, by the Articles of Asso- 
ciation in 1774. It was matured and continued by 
the Declaration of Independence in 1776. It was fur- 
ther matured, and the faith of all the then thirteen 
States expressly plighted and engaged that it should 
be perpetual, by the Articles of Confederation in 1778. 
And, finally, in 1787 one of the declared objects for 
ordaining and establishing the Constitution was 'to 
form a more perfect Union.' 

"But if the destruction of the Union by one or by a 
part only of the States be lawfully possible, the Union 
is less perfect than before the Constitution, having lost 
the vital element of perpetuity. 

**It follows from these views that no State upon its 
own mere motion can lawfully get out of the Union; 
that resolves and ordinances to that effect are legally 
void; and that acts of violence, within any State or 
States, against the authority of the United States, are 
insurrectionary or revolutionary, according to circum- 
stances. 

''I therefore consider that, in view of the Constitu- 
tion and the laws, the Union is unbroken; and to the 
extent of my ability I shall take care, as the Constitu- 
tion itself expressly enjoins upon me, that the laws of 
the Union be faithfully executed in all the States. 
Doing this I deem to be only a simple duty on my part ; 
and I shall perform it so far as practicable, unless my 
rightful masters, the American people, shall withhold 
the requisite means, or in some authoritative manner 
direct the contrary. I trust this will not be regarded 
as a menace, but only as the declared purpose of the 
Union that it will constitutionally defend and maintain 
itself. 



288 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

"In doing this there needs to be no bloodshed or 
violence; and there shall be none, unless it be forced 
upon the national authority. The power confided to 
me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the 
property and places belonging to the government, and 
to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what 
may be necessary for these objects, there will be no 
invasion, no using of force against or among the people 
anywhere. Where hostility to the United States, in 
any interior locality, shall be so great and universal 
as to prevent competent resident citizens from holding 
the Federal offices, there will be no attempt to force 
obnoxious strangers among the people for that object. 
WTiile the strict legal right may exist in the government 
to enforce the exercise of these offices, the attempt to 
do so would be so irritating, and so nearly imprac- 
ticable withal, that I deem it better to forego for the 
time the uses of such offices. 

"The mails, unless repelled, will continue to be 
furnished in all parts of the Union. So far as possible, 
the people everywhere shall have that sense of perfect 
security which is most favorable to calm thought and 
reflection. The course here indicated will be followed 
unless current events and experience shall show a 
modification or change to be proper, and in every case 
and exigency my best discretion will be exercised ac- 
cording to circumstances actually existing; and with 
a view and a hope of a peaceful solution of the national 
troubles and the restoration of fraternal sympathies 
and affections. 

"That there are persons in one section or another 
who seek to destroy the Union at all events, and are 
glad of any pretext to do it, I will neither affirm nor 
deny; but if there be such, I need address no word to 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 289 

them. To those, however, who really love the Union 
may I not speak? 

"Before entering upon so grave a matter as the de- 
struction of our national fabric, with all its benefits, 
its memories, and its hopes, would it not be wise to 
ascertain precisely why we do it? Will you hazard 
so desperate a step while there is any possibility that 
any portion of the ills you fly from have no real exist- 
ence? Will you, while the certain ills you fly to are 
greater than all the real ones you fly from — will you 
risk the commission of so fearful a mistake? 

"All profess to be content in the Union if all con- 
stitutional rights can be maintained. Is it true, then, 
that any right, plainly written in the Constitution, 
has been denied? I think not. Happily the human 
mind is so constituted that no party can reach to the 
audacity of doing this. Think, if you can, of a single 
instance in which a plainly written provision of the 
Constitution has ever been denied. If by the mere 
force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority 
of any clearly \VTitten constitutional right, it might, 
in a moral point of view, justify revolution — certainly 
would if such a right were a vital one. But such is 
not our case. All the vital rights of minorities and of 
individuals are so plainly assured to them by affirma- 
tions and negations, guarantees and prohibitions, in 
the Constitution, that controversies never arise con- 
cerning them. But no organic law can ever be framed 
with a provision specifically applicable to every ques- 
tion which may occur in practical administration. No 
foresight can anticipate, nor any document of reason- 
able length contain, express provisions for all possible 
questions. Shall fugitives from labor be surrendered 
by national or by State authority? The Constitution 



290 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

does not expressly say. May Congress prohibit slavery 
in the Territories ? The Constitution does not expressly 
say. Must Congress protect slavery in the Territories ? 
The Constitution does not expressly say. 

''From questions of this class spring all our con- 
stitutional controversies, and we divide upon them 
into majorities and minorities. If the minority will 
not acquiesce, the majority must, or the government 
must cease. There is no other alternative; for con- 
tinuing the government is acquiescence on one side 
or the other. 

"If a minority in such case will secede rather than 
acquiesce, they make a precedent which in turn will 
divide and ruin them; for a minority of their own will 
secede from them whenever a majority refuses to 
be controlled by such minority. For instance, why 
may not any portion of a new confederacy a year or 
two hence arbitrarily secede again, precisely as a por- 
tion of the present Union now claim to secede from it? 
All who cherish disunion sentiments are now being 
educated to the exact temper of doing this. 

"Is there such perfect identity of interests among 
the States to compose a new Union, as to produce 
harmony only, and prevent renewed secession? 

"Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence 
of anarchy. A majority held in restraint by constitu- 
tional checks and limitations, and always changing 
easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and 
sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people. 
Whoever rejects it does, of necessity, fly to anarchy 
or to despotism. Unanimity is impossible; the rule 
of a minority, as a permanent arrangement, is wholly 
inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle, 
anarchy or despotism in some form is all that is left. 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 291 

''I do not forget the position, assumed by some, 
that constitutional questions are to be decided by the 
Supreme Court; nor do I deny that such decisions 
must be binding, in any case, upon the parties to a 
suit, as to the object of that suit, while they are also 
entitled to very high respect and consideration in all 
parallel cases by all other departments of the govern- 
ment. And while it is obviously possible that such 
decision may be erroneous in any given case, still the 
evil effect following it, being limited to that particular 
case, with the chance that it may be overruled and 
never become a precedent for other cases, can better 
be borne than could the evils of a different practice. 

''At the same time, the candid citizen must confess 
that if the policy of the government, upon vital ques- 
tions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably 
fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant 
they are made, in ordinary litigation between parties 
in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be 
their own rulers, having to that extent practically 
resigned their government into the hands of that emi- 
nent tribunal. Nor is there in this view any assault 
upon the court or the judges. It is a duty from which 
they may not shrink to decide cases properly brought 
before them, and it is no fault of theirs if others seek 
to turn their decisions to political purposes. 

"One section of our country believes slavery is right, 
and ought to be extended, while the other beheves it 
is wrong, and ought not to be extended. This is the 
only substantial dispute. The fugitive-slave clause 
of the Constitution, and the law for the suppression 
of the foreign slave-trade, are each as well enforced, 
perhaps, as any law can ever be in a community where 
the moral sense of the people imperfectly supports 



292 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

the law itself. The great body of the people abide by 
the dry legal obligation in both cases, and a few break 
over in each. This, I think, cannot be perfectly cured; 
and it would be worse in both cases after the separa- 
tion of the sections than before. The foreign slave- 
trade, now imperfectly suppressed, would be ultimately 
revived, without restriction, in one section, while fugi- 
tive slaves, now only partially surrendered, would not 
be surrendered at all by the other. 

"Physically speaking, we cannot separate. We can- 
not remove our respective sections from each other, 
nor build an impassable wall between them. A hus- 
band and wife may be divorced, and go out of the pres- 
ence and beyond the reach of each other; but the 
different parts of our country cannot do this. They 
cannot but remain face to face, and intercourse, either 
amicable or hostile, must continue between them. Is 
it possible, then, to make that intercourse more ad- 
vantageous or more satisfactory after separation than 
before? Can aliens make treaties easier than friends 
can make laws? Can treaties be more faithfully en- 
forced between aliens than laws can among friends? 
Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always; and 
when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain on 
either, you cease fighting, the identical old questions 
as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. 

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the 
people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow 
weary of the existing government, they can exercise 
their constitutional right of amending it, or their revo- 
lutionary right to dismember or overthrow it. I cannot 
be ignorant of the fact that many worthy and patriotic 
citizens are desirous of having the National Constitu- 
tion amended. While I make no recommendation of 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 293 

amendments, I fully recognize the rightful authority 
of the people over the whole subject, to be exercised 
in either of the modes prescribed in the instrument 
itself; and I should, under existing circumstances, 
favor rather than oppose a fair opportunity being af- 
forded the people to act upon it. I will venture to 
add that to me the convention mode seems preferable, 
in that it allows amendments to originate with the 
people themselves, instead of only permitting them 
to take or reject propositions originated by others not 
specially chosen for the purpose, and which might 
not be precisely such as they would wish to either ac-, 
cept or refuse. I understand a proposed amendment 
to the Constitution — which amendment, however, I 
have not seen — has passed Congress, to the effect that 
the Federal Government shall never interfere with 
the domestic institutions of the States, including that 
of persons held to service. To avoid misconstruction 
of what I have said, I depart from my purpose not to 
speak of particular amendments so far as to say that, 
holding such a provision to now be implied constitu- 
tional law, I have no objection to its being made ex- 
press and irrevocable. 

''The chief magistrate derives all his authority from 
the people, and they have conferred none upon him to 
fix terms for the separation of the States. The people 
themselves can do this also if they choose; but the 
executive, as such, has nothing to do with it. His duty 
is to administer the present government, as it came to 
his hands, and to transmit it, unimpaired by him, to 
his successor. 

"Why should there not be a patient confidence in 
the ultimate justice of the people? Is there any better 
or equal hope in the world? In our present differences 



294 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

is either party without faith of being in the right ? If 
the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with his eternal truth 
and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours 
of the South, that truth and that justice will surely 
prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the 
American people. 

''By the frame of the government under which we 
hve, this same people have wisely given their public 
servants but Uttle power for mischief; and have, with 
equal wisdom, provided for the return of that little to 
their own hands at very short intervals. While the 
people retain their virtue and vigilance, no administra- 
tion, by any extreme of wickedness or folly, can very 
seriously injure the government in the short space of 
four years. 

''My countrymen, one and all, think calmly and well 
upon this whole subject. Nothing valuable can be 
lost by taking time. If there be an object to hurry 
any of you in hot haste to a step which you would 
never take deUberately, that object will be frustrated 
by taking time; but no good object can be frustrated 
by it. Such of you as are now dissatisfied, still have 
the old Constitution unimpaired, and, on the sensitive 
point, the laws of your own framing under it; while the 
new administration will have no immediate power, if 
it would, to change either. If it were admitted that 
you who are dissatisfied hold the right side in the dis- 
pute, there still is no single good reason for precipitate 
action. IntelHgence, patriotism, Christianity, and a 
firm reliance on Him who has never yet forsaken this 
favored land, are still competent to adjust in the best 
way all our present difficulty. 

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, 
and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. 



FIRST INAUGURAL ADDRESS 295 

The government will not assail you. You can have no 
conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You 
have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the gov- 
ernment, while I shall have the most solemn one to 
'preserve, protect, and defend it.' 

"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but 
friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion 
may have strained, it must not break our bonds of 
affection. The mystic chord of memory, stretching 
from every battle-field and patriot grave to every living 
heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet 
swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as 
surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature." 

Here was the chart for the sailing of the ship of state 
under its new captain, Abraham Lincoln. 

It is a model for clearness, consistency, patience, and 
patriotism, even in temper and exact in justice to 
South no less than North, 

He contended that the South had neither consti- 
tutional right nor consistent reason for attempting to 
secede and organize an independent government. 

And yet, he did not speak of ''treason" or "rebellion" 
or any other words that might fan the flames of sec- 
tional hate. Its effect upon the North and upon the 
border States was most favorable, but in the South it 
was received with taunts and jeers. 

Greeley's New York Tribune said, March 5: 

"It is marked by no feeble expression. He who 
runs may read it and to twenty millions of people it 
will carry the tidings, good or not, as the case may be, 
that the Federal government of the United States is 
still in existence with a man at the head of it." 

After all, the address itself must be read and reread 
and studied and restudied to see and sense its clear- 



296 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

ness of statement, calmness, and the conclusiveness of 
its course of reasoning. 

The South, however, had gotten beyond the realm 
of reason. Its leaders had fanned it into a fury, hot 
with hate. 

With what delicacy and tenderness Lincoln treats 
them in his final appeal for the Union. 

Lincoln's fame as statesman and patriot may well 
rest upon his first inaugural address. 



CHAPTER XX 
LINCOLN THE LEADER 

"He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God." 
—II Sam. 24 : 3. 

Our own experience, confirmed by the records of 
history, demonstrate that leaders are born, not made. 
Men and birds and beasts, indeed almost all living 
creatures, have their leaders, and in most cases they 
lead because they are the best qualified to lead. This 
is pecuharly true as to the leaders of public thought. 

Evidences of Lincoln's leadership appeared at a 
comparatively early date. The children of the neigh- 
borhood looked to him to furnish their entertainment 
by speech or story. The grown-ups looked upon him 
as a boy of unusual education, in that he could write 
and write well, and accordingly they called upon him 
to attend to much of their correspondence, for writing 
in that day was a rather unusual accomplishment in 
his community. 

In all the games in which he was not a participant 
for honors, from a boxing or wrestling match to a 
horse race, he was always chosen as referee, umpire, 
judge. Such was his universal reputation for fairness 
and fearlessness that his judgments and decisions were 
rarely, if ever, questioned. 

His great physical strength, his skill with the maul 
and the ax and the scythe, gave him front rank in 
every community in which he lived as boy and youth. 
These qualities at that age were peculiarly marks of 
excellence and superiority. 

297 



298 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Unusual respect and even veneration was paid his 
physical powers, as well as his mental capacity. He 
was a helper to every one that was in need, from the 
humblest housewife to the biggest farmer in the com- 
munity, with a gentleness, a kindness, a gratitude not 
ordinarily found in giants. He was friend of every- 
body and enemy of nobody. Even as a boy it could 
well be said of him that he always had ''charity for 
all and malice toward none." 

The ''people" at Gentryville, the "folks" at New 
Salem, all seemed to see in this boy and youth one of 
their own kind. He was born of them, and among 
them, and in some way or other he just seemed to "be- 
long." He emulated their virtues, eschewed their 
vices, and yet maintained the respect and good-will 
of all. 

We remember how he was chosen captain in the 
Black Hawk War in 1832 over an older and more ex- 
perienced man, Kilpatrick. The people did it. They 
beheved in him and wanted to honor him. 

We remember how, though a Whig, he was appointed 
postmaster at New Salem in 1833 by President Jack- 
son, a Democrat, because the people wanted him and 
generally recommended him. 

We remember how he rose to leadership in the gen- 
eral assembly of Illinois, so that he was the unanimous 
choice of his party for speaker of the House in 1838 
and again in 1840. He was recognized as the Whig 
party leader of Illinois in the national campaign of 
1840, 1844, and 1848, indeed in almost every national 
campaign until the death of the Whig party. 

It has been said that all this recognition of leadership 
on the part of Lincoln in early life, as well as later, 
was unconscious and unsought so far as Lincoln was 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 299 

concerned. We deceive ourselves and misrepresent 
Lincoln. There have been few men in our American 
life more ambitious than he. 

The first reference that he makes to his political 
ambition was in his first circular at twenty-three years 
of age, when he became a candidate for the first time 
for member of the lUinois House of Representatives. 
You will remember what he said in the circular. It 
will bear repetition here in this chapter: 

''Every man is said to have his pecuHar ambition. 
Whether it be true or not, I can say, for one, that I 
have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed 
of my fellow-men, by rendering myself worthy of their 
esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this am- 
bition is yet to be developed." 

In 1854, in one of his great speeches, he said: 

"Twenty-two years ago, Judge Douglas and I first 
became acquainted. We were both young then — he 
a trifle younger than I. Even then we were both am- 
bitious, — I, perhaps quite as much so as he. With 
me, the race of ambition has been a failure — a flat 
failure; with him, it has been one of splendid success. 
His name fills the nation, and is not unknown even 
in foreign lands. I affect no contempt for the high 
eminence he has reached. So reached that the op- 
pressed of my species might have shared with me in 
the elevation, I would rather stand on that eminence 
than wear the richest crown that ever pressed a mon- 
arch's brow." 

This high and honorable ambition upon the part 
of Abraham Lincoln "of being truly esteemed of my 
fellow-men by rendering myself worthy of their es- 
teem," should be the motive power of more men in 
the public service to-day. 



300 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

There is a lot of human nature about most of us. 
Some have more than others. Lincoln was of this 
latter type. He knew the average man better than 
the average man knew himself, and he always seemed 
to take that average man's view-point, that is his best 
view-point, his noblest view-point, and then he would 
present his view in such a simple straightforward 
manner that the average citizen would adopt it much 
in surprise that Lincoln had only presented his audi- 
tor's own view of things after all; therefore, being the 
auditor's own, it must be correct. For 'tis with our 
judgments as with our watches: ''None go just aUke, 
but each believes his own." 

It has been said that consistency is the plea of the 
small mind. That contains the half of a truth and 
the whole of a lie. 

Lincoln himself asserted the right and the duty of 
changing his mind whenever he found that he was 
wrong; nevertheless, in following the course of his life 
from its Lake Itasca down to the great Gulf, we find a 
consistency, a sincerity, a straightforwardness of the 
current that is astonishing. True, he is human enough 
to present now and then a trifling, a temporary de- 
parture, but in the substance of things, in the essen- 
tials of each day's duties, in his conduct toward his 
fellow men, his fellow lawyers, his fellow statesmen, 
the Lincoln of Gentryville, Indiana, of New Salem, 
Illinois, of Springfield, Illinois, was the same Lincoln at 
Washington, D. C, always animated by a ''passion 
for justice, " the achievement of which was the goal 
of his life, and to which he was as true as the magnet 
to the pole. 

I have already discussed at considerable length 
"his passion for justice," in a previous chapter devoted 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 301 

to that element of his character. That dominating 
element, unaffected, uniform, unchanged and unchang- 
ing all through his life was recognized as much a part 
of ''Honest Abe," as were his arms and legs. 

This abiding confidence of the people in his judg- 
ment, in his sincerity, in his honesty, coupled with 
the fact that he spoke their simple speech, gave him 
tremendous persuasive power in moulding their judg- 
ment and their action. 

His understanding of the understanding of the twelve 
men in the jury-box effectively equipped him to under- 
stand the understanding of the larger jury at the ballot- 
box. 

We have noticed with what diligence Lincoln con- 
tinued the practice of law after his return from Con- 
gress in 1849, until the campaign of 1854. By common 
consent of his fellow lawyers, a rather unusual thing, 
he was easily the leader of the Illinois bar, at least of 
the eighth circuit. 

We have seen that leadership recognized by his fre- 
quent choice of his fellow lawyers to preside in the 
trial of cases in the absence of the regular judge, a 
most unusual honor and recognition of leadership, 
for there were giants in those days. But Lincoln not 
merely physically, but mentally, was the master of 
them all. The people believed it and the lawyers of 
his day generally admitted it. 

One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four marked 
a new crisis in the politics of the nation upon the one 
great disturbing question — slavery, which was thrown 
into the foreground of the political stage by the pas- 
sage of Douglas's Kansas-Nebraska Bill. 

The Missouri Compromise of 1820 said save and, 
except the State of Missouri, there should be no slavery 



302 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

in the national territory north of 36° 30'; the Kansas- 
Nebraska bill said you can have slavery in Kansas 
and Nebraska if you choose. It was Douglas's bid 
for the support of the South, and indicated to Lincoln 
unmistakably the purpose to bring about the further 
spread of slavery. It was to him a new call to arms 
in behalf of hberty and democracy, and we find him 
in the campaign of that year for the senatorship. He 
was the unanimous candidate of the Whig party, and 
while they had a plurality of the legislature, they did 
not have a majority. There were sufficient anti-Ne- 
braska Democrats to prevent an election. Their candi- 
date was Lyman Trumbull. Rather than see the 
election of a senator of pro-slavery views, Lincoln 
magnanimously withdrew and urged his party fol- 
lowers and friends to go to the support of Trumbull, 
who, while he had but few votes, with Lincoln's many 
votes, could be elected. Again Lincoln demonstrated 
his leadership in a great cause, though it meant for 
the time being his own defeat. 

In 1856 the Republican party was organized in 
IlHnois at a convention held in Bloomington, at which 
Lincoln made one of the greatest speeches of his fife. 
Indeed, so absorbed and entranced were the news- 
paper men who were present, that they forgot to take 
notes during the progress of the speech and found 
themselves, at its close, with only a memory of his 
splendid triumph. Lincoln himself had no manu- 
script, and hence this great speech has become known 
as the ''Lost Speech" of Lincoln. 

Lincoln's wonderful address before the Republican 
Convention of 1856 established him at once as the 
RepubUcan leader of Illinois. Though not at the 
Republican National Convention, held the same year 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 303 

at Philadelphia, he received in that convention 110 
votes for the vice-presidency of the United States as 
against William L. Dayton of New Jersey, the success- 
ful nominee. This fact is worthy of mention, because 
many of us have been taught to believe that even in 
1860, two years after the great debate with Douglas 
in 1858, Lincoln was wholly unknown to the country 
and to the leaders of his party. 

His leadership in the debate with Douglas in 1858, 
one of the great pohtical and forensic battles upon 
the great issue of slavery, had been widely discussed 
by the press of the nation. Later, his speeches in Kan- 
sas, in Ohio, in New York, and in New England had 
invited, yes, compelled, attention to this coming man 
with his simplicity of manner, his strength of mind, 
his persuasive power upon the platform, and his fitness 
for party leadership. 

That Lincoln himself looked forward to future leader- 
ship there can be no doubt. 

The fact that he overruled aU his personal and polit- 
ical friends on the first paragraph of his great Spring- 
field speech demonstrated not only the firmness of 
his convictions, the soundness of his judgment, but 
that he was steering his ship of state for some great 
future pohtical sea. 

An interesting incident in the Lincoln-Douglas de- 
bate illustrating Lincoln's leadership occurred at Free- 
port. He had written out a number of questions to 
be submitted to Senator Douglas for an answer, among 
which was the following: 

"Can the people of a United States Territory, in 
any lawful way, against the wish of any citizen of the 
United States, exclude slavery from its limits prior 
to the formation of a State constitution?" 



304 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

The reader is no doubt aware that the Dred Scott 
decision, as it has become popularly known, was the 
basis of many great political arguments in the years 
1857, 1858, 1859, and 1860. The effect of the decision 
was that a slave was property, and that any citizen 
could take any of his property into any Territory of the 
United States, and that the Constitution of the Union 
would protect him there in the possession, use, and en- 
joyment of such property. 

This now being a federal law by virtue of the Dred 
Scott case, a Territory either by act of Congress or by 
its local legislature could not in any wise impair or 
defeat that right. Hence, the pertinency of this ques- 
tion. 

Before submitting the question to Senator Douglas, 
it was carefully written out by Lincoln and submitted 
to a number of his friends in order to obtain their 
judgment as to the wisdom of putting it to Senator 
Douglas at the Freeport debate. They were unani- 
mously against the question. 

They urged that Douglas would answer it in the 
affirmative and that that answer would cost Lincoln 
the senatorship. Lincoln overruled them, as he had 
done with reference to their judgment on the opening 
paragraph of the Springfield speech heretofore referred 
to, and in ignoring the advice and counsel of his friends 
he said: 

"I am after larger game. The battle of 1860 is 
worth a hundred of this." 

The question was put as written out by Lincoln. 
Douglas answered in the affirmative and gave as his 
reason "unfriendly legislation by the local legislature." 

A parrot will repeat what she heard her master say 
yesterday, a philosopher will diagnose the sayings and 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 305 

doings of to-day, but it is only a prophet who can 
forecast what will happen in the to-morrows. 

Lincoln put this question to Douglas, not to beat 
Douglas for the senatorship, but to beat him for the 
presidency. No, on second thought I think this is an 
injustice to Lincoln. I don't think he had in mind any 
person's triumph or defeat, but rather the greater 
question, the triumph or defeat of a great human 
cause. He saw with almost divine prescience that 
Douglas's answer to that question would place him at 
once in square and irreconcilable conflict with the great 
Democratic party of the South, and one of two things 
must happen to Douglas: he would either lose their 
support for the nomination of President or the elec- 
tion of President. 

Solomon has said: 

"Where there is no vision, the people perish." 

And Isaiah has spoken about the essential qualities 
of vision in the following words: 

"They err in vision; they stumble in judgment." 

Lincoln's vision was well-nigh divine, but it was 
arrived at by the orderly processes of his own mind, 
applying the principle of causation to conditions and 
forces as they are to-day, with a view of predetermining 
their effects to-morrow and next year. 

So he stood firm, almost obstinately, for the open- 
ing paragraph of the Springfield speech and for the 
question put to Douglas in the Freeport debate. 

He had vision, and, therefore, he did not "stumble 
in judgment." 

Lincoln was right. Douglas won the senatorship, 
but his, after all, was only a Pyrrhic victory. Herndon 
relates that upon the aggregate vote cast for members 
of the legislature Lincoln beat Douglas by some fom- 



306 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

thousand votes, but that owing to the partisan forma- 
tion of the legislative districts Douglas had the major- 
ity of the legislative vote. 

Though the victor in the senatorship fight in Illinois, 
Douglas's reception in Democratic circles was far less 
favorable than the reception accorded Abraham Lin- 
coln, the vanquished, in Republican circles. Why? 
Lincoln had stood four-square for a great cause, for 
human liberty, not only as written in the Declaration 
of Independence, but to be written into the political 
policies of the life of the nation. 

He himself says, after that debate was over and after 
he had been twice defeated for the United States 
senatorship of Illinois in 1854 and 1858 in a letter 
to Doctor Henry, an intimate personal and political 
friend: 

''I am glad I made the late race. It gave me a 
hearing on the great and durable questions of the age 
which I could have had in no other way; and though I 
now sink out of view and shall be forgotten, I believe 
I have made some marks which will tell for the cause 
of liberty long after I am gone," 

In a letter to Henry Asbury in 1858 he said: 

"... The fight must go on. The cause of civil 
Hberty must not be surrendered at the end of one or 
even one hundred defeats. Douglas had the ingenuity 
to be supported in the late contest both as the best 
means to break down and to uphold the slave interest. 
No ingenuity can keep these antagonistic elements in 
harmony long. Another explosion will soon come." 

Here we have the very genius of leadership, a leader- 
ship that stands for measures rather than men, for 
causes rather than candidates, for principles rather 
than persons. 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 307 

This campaign to date had tested and tried Lincoln 
as to his capacity for pohtical leadership in three 
notable instances: 

1. He had followed his own judgment as to the 
''house divided against itself" paragraph of the Spring- 
field speech against the advice of all of his friends. 

2. He had followed his own judgment in the question 
that he put to Douglas in the Freeport debate, likewise 
against the advice of all his friends. 

3. By the Freeport question to Douglas and Doug- 
las's answer he had driven Douglas into a position 
upon the question of slavery so hostile to the Southern 
point of view that Douglas, as the Democratic nomi- 
nee of 1860, became impossible so long as the South 
was in the saddle. 

While Lincoln had lost the senatorship he had gained 
friends and fame throughout the country, not merely 
as a great debater, but as an able leader upon the 
great questions that were to stir this country from 
coast to coast in the coming national election. 

This independence and self-reliance, after having 
carefully and conscientiously studied the whole ques- 
tion, was one of the marked characteristics of Abraham 
Lincoln. It was as true of him legally as it was true 
politically. His own partner, Herndon, repeatedly 
says that he never knew him to advise even with as- 
sociate counsel as to the best course to pursue in the 
trial of a cause in any court. Yet he was not dis- 
courteous, but, upon the contrary, a perfect gentleman, 
not only with the court, but with all the counsel en- 
gaged in any cause. No member of the Springfield 
bar was ever treated with such uniform courtesy as 
was Lincoln, and the chief reason was that that was 
the kind of treatment he gave in return. 



308 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

We shall see much of this independent judgment of 
Lincoln's in the following pages. 

The story of the National RepubHcan Conven- 
tion held in the "Wigwam" at Chicago in 1860 is 
familiar to all of us. It is unnecessary to review its 
details. 

His campaign managers were specifically instructed 
that there were to be no bargains for votes. 

It has been questioned as to whether Judge Davis 
and others specifically followed this instruction. 

If any departure was made from it, Mr. Lincoln 
never felt obligated in the least. 

Lincoln was nominated upon the third ballot, which 
was followed by a pubUc demonstration that had never 
before been witnessed in any political convention. 

The people of his party were evidently with him 
from the start, but the leaders had grave doubts. 
Most of the men upon the committee who went to 
Springfield officially to notify Lincoln of his nomination 
were of the latter class. Upon the whole he made a 
favorable impression, however, both in their reception 
and by his few brief remarks. He was importuned 
from all quarters to take the stump in the national 
campaign. Here again the leader asserts himself: he 
positively but diplomatically declined, saying among 
other things the following: 

''Those who will not read or heed what I have al- 
ready publicly said would not heed or read a repetition 
of it. 'If they hear not Moses and the prophets, 
neither will they be persuaded if one rose from the 
dead!'" 

Many of his friends in different sections of the coun- 
try wrote him personal letters containing inquiries as 
to this and that touching his public utterances. As 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 309 

to one of these he ventured an explanation, but added 
this significant language: 

''I have made this explanation to you as a friend, 
but I wish no explanation made to our enemies. What 
they want is a squabble and a fuss, and that they can 
have if we explain and they cannot have it if we don't." 

The night of his election his ability to lead the people 
was evidenced by two facts occurring in Springfield. 

1. He had decided that night at the telegraph-office 
upon his Cabinet substantially as finally constituted. 

2. In a little speech he made to his neighbors who 
came to the Lincoln home to express their enthusiasm, 
he said: 

"In all our rejoicing let us neither express nor cher- 
ish any hard feeling toward any citizen who has dif- 
fered from us. Let us at all times remember that all 
American citizens are members of a common country 
and should dwell together in the bonds of fraternal 
feeling." 

Here in these few words to his friends and neighbors 
was outshadowed not only Lincoln leadership, but the 
one great issue of his administration, to which all other 
issues must subordinate themselves, and that was: We 
are "all members of a common country." Therefore, 
the slogan must be "The Union — it must be preserved." 



CHAPTER XXI 

LINCOLN THE LEADER 

(continued) 

Lincoln was, after all, a minority President. The 
slavery men had been confounded by divisions among 
them. Thereby Lincoln had saved the election; could 
he now save the Union? Here was the occasion and 
opportunity for leadership of the highest quality, and 
I have always felt that Lincoln's greatness in this be- 
half has never been fully appreciated. 

We have read much and heard much about his sub- 
duing Seward, his patient handling of Chase, and his 
diplomatic dealing with Stanton, whom he finally 
brought to love him as much as Stanton could love 
any man. 

But Lincoln's greatness appeared not merely in deal- 
ing with individual man. It was the handhng of men 
in the mass; in short, in the moulding and managing 
of public opinion. 

It will be remembered that in his debate with Doug- 
las touching the importance of public opinion, he said : 

''In this and like conrimunities, public sentiment is 
everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; 
without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently, he 
who moulds public sentiment goes deeper than he who 
enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes 
statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be 
executed." 

Of the total vote cast for the presidency, the electoral 
vote in and of itself is exceedingly misleading. That 

310 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 311 

vote stood: Lincoln 180 votes, Douglas 12, Brecken- 
ridge 72, and Bell 39, But the popular vote really, 
after all, indexed public sentiment. That vote stood 
as follows: Lincoln 1,858,000, Douglas 1,366,000, Breck- 
enridge 848,000, and Bell 591,000. The total popular 
vote was 4,663,000, of which Lincoln's vote was a bare 
forty per cent. Even in the States north of Mason and 
Dixon's line Lincoln was barely a majority candidate. 
Something had to be done at once to unify public sen- 
timent in the North. The votes for Douglas and Bell 
were so numerous that substantial representation must 
be given to those leaders in the new administration in 
order to keep their followers loyal to the great cause 
of the Union. 

His Cabinet chosen by himself, was as follows: 
For secretary of state, William H. Seward, of New 
York; for secretary of treasury, Salmon P. Chase, of 
Ohio; for secretary of war, Simon Cameron, of Penn- 
sylvania; for attorney-general, Edward Bates, of Mis- 
souri; for secretary of interior, Caleb B. Smith, of In- 
diana; for secretary of navy, Gideon Welles, of Con- 
necticut; for postmaster-general, Montgomery Blair, of 
Maryland. 

No such political Cabinet had ever been chosen in 
this country or any other. The majority of the mem- 
bers had been rival candidates for the presidency in 
the convention that nominated Lincoln. Four of them 
had been former Democrats, three of them former 
Whigs. Some of Lincoln's Republican friends re- 
monstrated with him against a Republican President 
having a Democratic Cabinet. Lincoln replied, half 
in jest, but more than half in wisdom, that he would 
ofttimes sit in the Cabinet, and that would make it 
stand four to fom*. 



312 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Not a big man in the Cabinet but believed him- 
self bigger than the President and bigger than all the 
other big men in the Cabinet. If such thing were pos- 
sible, each Cabinet officer distrusted the others much 
more than each distrusted the President. Yet each 
member of that Cabinet in a peculiar way repre- 
sented in large measure a substantial fraction of pubHc 
opinion, especially pubUc opinion from a personal or 
partisan standpoint. 

Lincoln's paramount object in the construction of 
this Cabinet was to unify public sentiment of the North 
so as to be able effectually to meet the united public 
sentiment of the South in the great crisis confronting 
him. 

In the selection of a Cabinet two plans were open to 
the new President : The first, to surround himself with 
men of inferior loyalty who would fawn upon and flatter 
him and act merely as his faithful subordinates, or: 
second, with an official family made up of the biggest 
and most representative leaders of all political parties 
and elements from all the various sections of the country, 
even at the risk of eclipsing or menacing his ability to 
lead in such a company of distinguished men. He 
chose the latter. 

It is fair to presume that no other President would 
have chosen such a Cabinet, and no other President 
could have managed such a Cabinet so as to get out of 
it the efficiency that Lincoln did get out of it. 

Now comes the play for place and power. Volumes 
have been written upon Lincoln's mastery over his 
Cabinet ministers, and I take pleasure in referring to 
Rothschild on ''Lincoln, Master of Men," deahng 
largely with his Cabinet ministers and generals. Only 
a brief review of his relations with his Cabinet will be 
given here. 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 313 

Seward was the most keenly and conscientiously 
disappointed candidate at the Chicago Convention. 
His long experience in pubHc life, twice governor of 
New York, twice senator, a distinguished leader of 
his party, gave him the lead in that convention. 
To his great surprise he was defeated, and at first he 
and his friends took that defeat very bitterly. Out- 
wardly he seemed magnanimous by taking an active 
part in the national campaign in behalf of Lincoln and 
Hamlin, but his inward disappointment and humilia- 
tion strikingly appear in his personal letters to his 
wife. In one of these letters he described himself as 
"a leader deposed by my own party in the hour of 
organization for decisive battle." 

This was no doubt his conscientious attitude. He 
honestly believed that not only was he the first and 
only fit man for that distinguished honor, but that 
Abraham Lincoln, the nominee, was wholly unfit for 
that distinguished honor. 

Early after the election Lincoln invited him to be- 
come his secretary of state in the new administration. 
Seward took three weeks to answer. He accepted but 
with such a haughty and lordly air that the President- 
elect was greatly pained. 

Later, on the Saturday before the inauguration, he 
withdrew that acceptance. Lincoln took time to meet 
this unexpected withdrawal, and on the following 
Monday morning addressed a brief note to Seward, in 
which, among other things, he said: 

"It is the subject of the most painful solicitude with 
me ; and I feel constrained to beg that you will counter- 
mand the withdrawal. The pubUc interest, I think, 
demands that you should; and my personal feelings 
are deeply enlisted in the same direction. Please con- 
sider and answer by 9 o'clock a. m. to-morrow." 



314 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Seward did enter the Cabinet as secretary of state, 
but not because he loved Lincoln or had any measure 
of faith in his abihty as the head of the new adminis- 
tration; but as he said in a letter to Mrs. Seward: 

"I have advised Mr. L. that I will not decline. It 
is inevitable. I will try to save freedom and my coun- 
try." 

A few days later he wrote: 

"I have assumed a sort of dictatorship for defence; 
and am laboring night and day, with the cities and 
States. ... It seems to me that if I am absent only 
three days, this administration, the Congress, and 
the District would fall into consternation and de- 
spair. I am the only hopeful, calm, conciliatory person 
here." 

Strange, indeed, that Seward had so misgauged the 
measure of the new President as to feel warranted in 
sending him before he had been in office thirty days 
the following memorandum : 

^^ Some Thoughts for the Presidenfs Consideration, 
April 1, 1861 

"First. We are at the end of a month's administra- 
tion, and yet without a policy, either domestic or for- 
eign. 

''Second. This, however, is not culpable, and it 
has even been unavoidable. The presence of the Senate, 
with the need to meet applications for patronage, have 
prevented attention to other and more grave matters. 

"Third. But further delay to adopt and prosecute 
our policies for both domestic and foreign affairs would 
not only bring scandal on the administration, but 
danger upon the country. 

"Fourth. To do this we must dismiss the applicants 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 315 

for office. But how? I suggest that we make the 
local appointments forthwith, leaving foreign or gen- 
eral ones for ulterior and occasional action. 

''Fifth. The policy at home. I am aware that my 
views are singular, and perhaps not sufficiently ex- 
plained. My system is built upon this idea as a ruling 
one, namely, that we must 

''Change the Question before the Public from 
One upon Slavery, or about Slavery, for a ques- 
tion upon Union or Disunion: 

"In other words, from what would be regarded as 
a party question, to one of patriotism or union. 

"The occupation or evacuation of Fort Sumter, 
although not in fact a slavery or a party question, is 
so regarded. Witness the temper manifested by the 
Repubhcans in the Free States, and even by the Union 
men in the South. 

"I would therefore terminate it as a safe means for 
changing the issue. I deem it fortunate that the last 
administration created the necessity. 

"For the rest, I would simultaneously defend and 
re-enforce all the ports in the Gulf, and have the navy 
recalled from foreign stations to be prepared for a 
blockade. Put the island of Key West under martial 
law. 

"This will raise distinctly the question of union or 
disunion. I would maintain every fort and possession 
in the South. 

FOR foreign nations 

"I would demand explanations from Spain and 
France, categorically, at once. 

"I would seek explanations from Great Britain and 
Russia, and send agents into Canada, Mexico, and 



316 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Central America to rouse a vigorous continental spirit 
of independence on this continent against European 
intervention. 

"And, if satisfactory explanations are not received 
from Spain and France, 

''Would convene Congress and declare war against 
them. 

"But whatever policy we adopt, there must be an 
energetic prosecution of it. 

"For this purpose it must be somebody's business 
to pursue and direct it incessantly. 

"Either the President must do it himself, and be 
all the while active in it, or 

"Devolve it on some member of his cabinet. Once 
adopted, debates on it must end, and all agree and 
abide. 

"It is not in my especial province; 

"But I neither seek to evade nor assume respon- 
sibihty." * 

Such a note as this would have cost a Cabinet officer 
in anybody else's Cabinet than Lincoln's a summary 
dismissal or at least a deserved rebuke. 

No matter what one's prestige, place, or power may 
be, he is never excused from being a gentleman. 

Lincoln even had a right to presume that Secretary 
Seward, distinguished for his learning, his culture, and 
social experience, would not so far forget his good 
manners as to address such a note to a backwoods law- 
yer from a little town in Illinois. 

But nature's gentleman ignored the insults between 
the lines, no less than in the hues, and sent Seward a 
lesson in good manners, good poUcy, and good govern- 
ment that he never forgot. 

* Hemdon, vol. II. p. 201. 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 317 

Upon the same day the note was received, Lincoln 
replied as follows: 

Executive Mansion, April 1, 18G1. 
"Hon. W. H. Seward. 

^^My dear Sir: Since parting with you, I have been 
considering your paper dated this day, and entitled 
'Some Thoughts for the President's Consideration.' 
The first proposition in it is, 'First. We are at the 
end of a month's administration, and yet without a 
policy, either domestic or foreign.' 

"At the beginning of that month, in the inaugural, 
I said : ' The power confided to me will be used to hold, 
occupy, and possess the property and places belonging 
to the government, and to collect the duties and im- 
posts.' This had your distinct approval at the time; 
and taken in connection with the order I immediately 
gave General Scott, directing him to employ every 
means in his power to strengthen and hold the forts, 
comprises the exact domestic policy you now urge, 
with the single exception that it does not propose to 
abandon Fort Sumter. 

"Again, I do not perceive how the re-enforcement 
of Fort Sumter would be done on a slavery or a party 
issue, while that of Fort Pickens would be on a more 
national and patriotic one. 

"The news received yesterday in regard to St. 
Domingo certainly brings a new item within the range 
of our foreign poHcy; but up to that time we have 
been preparing circulars and instructions to ministers 
and the hke, all in perfect hannony, without even a 
suggestion that we had no foreign policy. 

"Upon your closing proposition — that 'whatever 
policy we adopt, there must be an energetic prosecu- 
tion of it. 



318 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

'' 'For this purpose it must be somebody's business 
to pursue and direct it incessantly. 

" 'Either the President must do it himself, and be 
all the while active in it, or 

" 'Devolve it on some member of his cabinet. Once 
adopted, debates on it must end, and all agree and 
abide' — I remark that if this must be done, I must 
do it. When a general line of policy is adopted, I ap- 
prehend there is no danger of its being changed with- 
out good reason, or continuing to be a subject of un- 
necessary debate ; still, upon points arising in its prog- 
ress I wish, and suppose I am entitled to have, the 
advice of all the cabinet. 

"Your obedient servant, 

"A. Lincoln." 

For personal forbearance, political magnanimity, and 
practical poise, this answer of President Lincoln is un- 
excelled in diplomatic correspondence. It was never 
revealed to the public until thirty years thereafter, 
when published by Nicolay and Hay. 

No wonder that later this same Secretary Seward, in 
a letter to his wife, wrote : 

"Executive force and vigor are rare qualities. The 
President is the best of us." 

Henceforth the secretary of state revised his esti- 
mate of his chief, and learned not only to respect his 
power but respect his personality. 

By the by, the time came when Seward's political 
prestige was assailed by a committee from the Senate 
composed of some of its most distinguished members, 
who called upon President Lincoln demanding the dis- 
missal of Secretary Seward from the Cabinet. 

In this company of distinguished senators were Col- 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 319 

lamore, Sumner, Fessenden, Wade, Truinbull, Grimes, 
Harris, Howard, and Pomeroy. As they filed into the 
President's room that night they saw present his entire 
Cabinet save Secretary Seward, whose dismissal they 
urged. 

The Senate committee made a sharp assault upon 
the administration and particularly upon Seward's part 
in it. The position of the Cabinet was best stated by 
Stanton when he said in reply to the senators : 

''This cabinet, gentlemen, is like yonder window. 
Suppose you allowed it to be understood that passers- 
by might knock out one pane of glass — just one at a 
time, — how long do you think any panes would be left 
in it?" 

The Cabinet stood together for Seward. Chase 
was the one embarrassed man who sat that time as 
upon a hot griddle, for he had been one of the chief 
instigators of the anti-Seward movement, and the sen- 
ators present, as well as President Lincoln, thoroughly 
knew it. 

Chase finally was called upon to state his position 
with reference to Seward. Upon this question Roths- 
child in "Master of Men," says: 

"Even Chase, brought to bay, was forced into turn- 
ing, after a fashion, against the men who had come to 
strengthen his position. He found himself in a pre- 
dicament. To agree with the Senators in their attacks 
upon Seward or the administration, though he had 
made the identical criticisms to them and to others, 
was, in that presence, obviously out of the question. 
To take ground effectively against these charges, with- 
out stultifying himself, was, under existing conditions, 
equally impossible. So he joined with his fellow 
ministers, as best he could, protesting angrily, the while, 



320 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

against his dilemma, and expressing regret that he had 
come." 

Before the adjournment Lincoln again polled the 
committee. Of the eight present only four voted 
against Seward, indicating a decided change in the 
situation from what the committee had at first ex- 
hibited. 

Lincoln had saved Seward. 

Chase is the one human enigma of the Lincoln Cabi- 
net, a marvellous combination of personal dignity, 
classical scholarship, legal ability, public experience, 
conscientious conviction against human slavery. He 
was the second man Lincoln had determined upon the 
night of the election for a leading member of his Cabi- 
net. Chase's acceptance of the secretaryship of the 
treasury was not finally made until after the nomina- 
tion had been sent to the Senate on the 4th of March, 
1861. 

Chase, like Seward, could not yet understand why 
the great National RepubUcan Convention at Chicago 
should have preferred Lincoln to him. His pride had 
been piqued by the fact that Seward had been given 
the preference for secretary of state, and after learning 
that his name had gone to the Senate for confirmation, 
called upon President Lincoln to decline the appoint- 
ment. What happened in that interview with Presi- 
dent Lincoln is not reported. Suffice it to say that 
Lincoln's view prevailed and Chase became a member 
of the Cabinet. 

It must be freely conceded that Chase's management 
of the nation's finances place him in the class of Ham- 
ilton and Gallatin, and nobody appreciated the skill 
and efficiency of his public service in the great national 
crisis more than his chief, the President. 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 321 

But with all nature's lavish gifts, with which this 
man had been so richly endowed, he was literally ob- 
sessed with his own vanity, his own selfishness, and a 
supreme jealousy of all possible rivals. He was pe- 
culiarly susceptible to flattery and loved it in such 
wholesale quantities as would have been strikingly 
offensive to almost any other man. He had no confi- 
dence in the President's ability and less in the ability 
of every other member of the Cabinet. 

He was a prodigal letter-writer, and in his early ser- 
vice in the government mostly directed his activity 
against his chief. As a specimen from his erratic pen, 
I submit the following from the Chase diary: 

"Ten days of battle and then such changes — changes 
in which it is difficult to see the pubhc good. How sin- 
gularly all our worst defeats have followed administra- 
tive er — no, blunders." 

To one of his friends he wrote: 

''I am not responsible for the management of the 
war and have no voice in it, except that I am not for- 
bidden to make suggestions and do so now and then 
when I cannot help it." 

He also wrote the President a note something after 
the manner of Seward's ''Thoughts." It was as un- 
gracious as it was unjustifiable. 

His penchant for letter-writing found a strange out- 
let in an active and general correspondence that he 
had with civil and military leaders throughout the 
country, who had found themselves, for some reason 
or other, in disfavor with President Lincoln. He 
seemed delighted to be encouraging disloyalty and 
sympathizing with antiadministration men. 

His diary furnishes an absolute demonstration of 
his disloyalty to President Lincoln, personally and 



322 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

politically. The selfish qualities that dominated his 
life came out in connection with what became known 
as the 'Tomeroy Circular." His active disloyalty 
to Abraham Lincoln while in the Cabinet in con- 
nection with his war against Seward to force him out 
of the administration, and his war against Lincoln 
to beat him for a renomination, so clouds what other- 
wise might have been a most distinguished career of 
this able Cabinet officer, that the one incredible thing 
above all others is that his friends should ever have 
permitted his diary to be given to the public. 

In the beginning of this administration he was prob- 
ably no more disappointed or distrustful, and con- 
scientiously so, of the capacity of Lincoln for the great 
trust committed to his hands than Seward ; but Seward 
had been disillusioned. He had early come to under- 
stand Lincoln, and to concede him a large measure of 
the very great abihty that he clearly possessed. 

Not so with Chase. He was the one disgruntled, 
dissatisfied, disloyal man toward his chief practically 
throughout his service in the Cabinet. He had re- 
signed several times, the President refusing to accept 
his resignation, and Chase did not further press the 
issue. Finally, in June, 1864, the next day after the 
famous Cabinet meeting with the United States sen- 
ators, at the White House, as noted in the discussion of 
Seward's relations with Lincoln, Chase sent in his 
resignation. At that time the resignations of both 
Seward and Chase were in the hands of the President. 
He refused to accept Seward's and much to Chase's 
surprise accepted his. 

The formal acceptance was by letter to the secre- 
tary as follows : 

''Your resignation of the office of Secretary of the 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 323 

Treasury, sent me yesterday, is accepted. Of all I 
have said in commendation of your ability and fidelity 
I have nothing to unsay; and yet you and I have 
reached a point of mutual embarrassment in our official 
relations, which it seems cannot be overcome or longer 
sustained, consistently with the public service." 

Later on Lincoln, in justification of this acceptance, 
said to a friend: 

"I will tell you how it is with Chase. It is the easiest 
thing in the world for a man to fall into a bad habit. 
Chase has fallen into two bad habits. ... He thinks 
he has become indispensable to the country; that his 
intimate friends know it, and he cannot comprehend 
why the country does not understand it. He also 
thinks he ought to be President; he has no doubt what- 
ever about that. It is inconceivable to him why people 
have not found it out; why they don't as one man, 
rise up and say so. . . . He knows that I could not 
make it. (The nomination of Field in New York). 
He knows that the nomination of Field (as assistant 
secretary of the treasury) would displease the Unionists 
of New York, would defight our enemies, and injure 
our friends. He knows that I could not make it with- 
out seriously offending the strongest supporters of 
the government in New York, and that the nomina- 
tion would not strengthen him anywhere or with any- 
body. Yet he resigns because I will not make it. He 
is either determined to annoy me, or that I shall pat 
him on the shoulder and coax him to stay. I don't 
think I ought to do it. I will not do it. I will take 
him at his word." 

Being now out of the Cabinet, he pursued with rare 
relish his petty criticisms of Lincoln. 

In 1864, Chief Justice Taney of Dred Scott notoriety 



324 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

had died, and a new chief justice had to be selected 
by President Lincoln to preside over the greatest ju- 
dicial tribunal of the nation. Who should it be? 
Naturally a man of large legal abiUty and experience, 
whose education and equipment qualified him for that 
high and honorable place. Likewise, another great 
qualification must prevail, and that is sympathy with 
the fundamental constitutional and legislative policies 
of the administration. Many legislative acts were 
being challenged upon the basis of unconstitutionality 
in the federal courts. 

Naturally, President Lincoln would cast about him 
for some great lawyer, some great jurist, who was not 
inherently hostile to the legislative and administrative 
pohcies from the Northern point of view. 

Then it was that an unheard-of and almost unbeliev- 
able thing happened. This same Salmon P. Chase, 
who had caused Lincoln much embarrassment while 
in the Cabinet, had written the bitterest criticism of 
him, had become a candidate against him to defeat 
him for renomination, and continued his bitter and 
unreasonable criticism even after he had retired from 
the Cabinet, this Chase was nominated by President 
Lincoln as chief justice of the Supreme Court of the 
United States. 

Would you have done it? Could you have done 
it? 

It is only another overwhelming proof that Lin- 
coln, as President, always kept in the foreground one 
"central idea," and that was the Union, its perpetuity 
and its welfare, no matter how his personal pride might 
be hurt or his personal fortunes affected. 

As showing his splendid magnanimity along these 
lines, I want to quote a note quoted by Rothschild in 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 325 

his "Lincoln, Master of Men." Judge E. Rockwood 
Hoar and Richard H. Dana called on Lincoln in behalf 
of Chase's appointment as chief justice. In that inter- 
view Lincoln said: 

''Mr. Chase is a very able man. He is a very am- 
bitious man and I think on the subject of the presidency 
a little insane. He has not always behaved very well 
lately and people say to me — ' Now is the time to crush 
him out.' Well, I am not in favor of crushing anybody 
out. If there is anything that a man can do and do 
it well, I say let him do it. Give him a chance." 

Edwin M. Stanton — we have all heard of him, and 
first met him in connection with Lincoln in the 
*'McCormick-Manny" case tried in the Federal Court 
at Cincinnati in 1855. 

We remember Stanton's elbowing Lincoln out of the 
case and treating him in such form that Lincoln 
with all his charity characterized it to Herndon as 
"rude," "purposely ignored," and "roughly handled 
by that man Stanton." 

No doubt Stanton never again expected to hear from 
that "long-armed creature." 

In the meantime Stanton had taken front rank 
among American lawyers, and had been employed by 
the government in very important cases. Later he 
became attorney-general for the spineless administra- 
tion of James Buchanan, and furnished what little 
virility that administration possessed in its parting 
days. 

Cameron, Lincoln's first secretary of war, was a 
bad misfit. His administration was wholly incom- 
petent, if not dishonest. Not that Cameron was 
dishonest, but many of his subordinates were found 
to be so, and he was held responsible for it. 



326 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Stanton was then living in Washington. He had 
bitterly criticised Lincoln and his administration. He 
had written to one of the major-generals of the army: 

"No one can imagine the deplorable condition of 
this city, and the hazard of the government, who did 
not witness the weakness and panic of the administra- 
tion, and the painful imbecility of Lincoln." 

To ex-President Buchanan he had written: 

*'A strong feeling of distrust in the candor and sin- 
cerity of Lincoln personally and of his cabinet has 
sprung up. If they had been merely silent and secret, 
there might have been no ground of complaint. But 
assurances are said to have been given and declarations 
made in conflict with the facts now transpiring, in re- 
spect to the South, so that no one speaks of Lincoln or 
any member of his cabinet with respect or regard." 

McClellan, in earlier days a stanch friend of Stan- 
ton's, says that Stanton often referred to President 
Lincoln "as a low, cunning clown." According to an- 
other, he habitually referred to Lincoln as "the origi- 
nal gorilla," and even said that "Du Chaillu was a 
fool to wander all the way to Africa in search of what 
he could so easily have found at Springfield, Illinois." 

Stanton was such a hard hitter and hater, that his 
views concerning Lincoln were no doubt known to the 
President at the time of Stanton's selection as secre- 
tary of war. 

Immediately after his choice, Stanton wrote to a 
friend as follows : 

"I hold my present post at the request of a President 
who knew me personally, but to whom I had not 
spoken from the 4th of March, 1861, until the day he 
handed me my conomission. [January, 1862.] I knew 
that everything I cherish and hold dear would be sacri- 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 327 

ficed by accepting office. But I thought I might help 
to save the country, and for that I was wiHing to 
perish." 

Several congressmen once called on Stanton to bring 
about a certain army appointment. Stanton declined 
to make it. The committee urged that the President 
was strongly in favor of it. Stanton rephed : 

''I do not care what the President wants; the coun- 
try wants the very best it can get. I am serving the 
country regardless of individuals." 

The congressmen returned to Lincoln and reported 
their failure. Whereupon Lincoln said: 

"Gentlemen, it is my duty to submit. I cannot add 
to Mr. Stanton's troubles. His position is one of the 
most difficult in the world. Thousands in the army 
blame him because they are not promoted, and other 
thousands out of the army blame him because they 
are not appointed. The pressure upon him is im- 
measurable and unending. He is the rock on the 
beach of our national ocean against which the breakers 
dash and roar, dash and roar, without ceasing. He 
fights back the angry waters and prevents them from 
undermining and overwhelming the land. Gentlemen, 
I do not see how he survives — why he is not crushed 
and torn to pieces. Without him I should be de- 
stroyed. He performs his task superhumanly. Now 
do not mind this matter, for Mr. Stanton is right and 
I cannot wrongly interfere with him." 

Numerous instances can be cited in which Stanton 
had his way, notwithstanding the well-known wishes 
of the President to the contrary. These were chiefly 
matters relating to appointments. But on matters of 
general policy, where the President had reached a fixed 
conclusion as to any matter, it was the President's will 



328 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

that finally prevailed. In some cases of appointments, 
indeed, the President was peremptory, as is shown by 
the following brief note to Secretary Stanton: 

"Executive Mansion, November 11, 1863. 
"Dear Sir: I personally wish Jacob Freese, of New 
Jersey, to be appointed colonel for a colored regiment, 
and this regardless of whether he can tell the exact 
shade of Julius Caesar's hair. 

''Yours, etc., 

''A. Lincoln." 

Every member of examining boards in civil or mili- 
tary life should read and regard the philosophy of this 
note. If so, many questions would be omitted from 
the usual tests. This note is Lincolnian for the essen- 
tials of things and the directness with which he points 
his English. 

Rothschild, who has made a painstaking analysis of 
the relation between Stanton and Lincoln, says: 

"The Secretary of War never successfully opposed 
his will to that of the President in any matter concern- 
ing which his chief had reached a definite purpose. 
Yet Mr. Lincoln made no display of his authority. He 
even, as we have seen, turned it over at times to Mr. 
Stanton; or, anxious to avoid a conflict, exercised it 
with all the delicacy of which he was capable. Few, 
if any, of the world's great captains could have man- 
aged this truculent lieutenant with so little friction. 
To that end, concession, persuasion, and diplomacy 
were freely intermingled. When they failed, however, 
the President asserted his mastery with a vigor before 
which the Secretary's passion and obstinacy had to 
give way." 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 329 

On the general policies of the War Department in the 
administration, Stanton had Lincoln's confidence, and 
Lincoln hkewise enjoyed the confidence of his great 
secretary of war. They were one as to their views on 
McClellan, who was constantly procrastinating and 
complaining about the insufficiency of his army to meet 
the enemy. In this respect Stanton once said of him, 
as recorded by Nicolay and Hay: 

"If he had a milhon men he would swear the enemy 
had two million, and then he would sit down in the 
mud and yell for three." 

Indeed, though McClellan and Stanton had been 
close personal and political friends, the President 
stayed with McClellan even after Stanton was ready 
to abandon him, and in this respect he had overruled 
Stanton as to the recall of McClellan. 

During one of the many discussions with reference 
to jealousies between Cabinet officers and generals of 
the army, Lincoln asserted his authority in the follow- 
ing brief address to his Cabinet : 

"I must myself be the judge how long to retain in 
and when to remove any of you from his position. It 
would greatly pain me to discover any of you endeav- 
oring to procure another's removal, or in any way to 
prejudice him before the pubhc. Such endeavor would 
be a wrong to me, and, much worse, a wrong to the 
country. My wish is that on this subject no remark 
be made nor question asked by any of you, here or else- 
where, now or hereafter." 

This language needs no conunent. 

Many delegations called on the President to induce 
him to dismiss from his Cabinet Secretary Stanton. 
To one of these friends Lincoln said : 

''Go home, my friend, and read attentively the tenth 



330 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

verse of the thirtieth chapter of Proverbs : 'Accuse not 
a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee and thou 
be found guilty.' " 

One of the great historians of that time relates Lin- 
coln's estimate of Stanton to one of these anti-Stanton 
delegations as follows: 

''Mr. Stanton has excellent quahties, and he has his 
defects. Folks come up here and tell me that there 
are a great many men in the country who have all 
Stanton's excellent qualities without his defects. All 
I have to say is, I haven't met 'em ! I don't know 
'em! I wish I did!" 

After Taney's death a delegation called on the Presi- 
dent urging the appointing of Stanton as chief justice. 
Mr. Lincoln said: 

''If you will find me another Secretary of War like 
him I will gladly appoint him." 

Later Stanton sent his resignation to Lincoln, owing 
to failing health under the great strain of his depart- 
ment. Lincoln, in the presence of the secretary, tore 
up the resignation, and throwing his arms about Stan- 
ton said : 

"Stanton, you have been a good friend and a faith- 
ful public servant; and it is not for you to say when 
you will no longer be needed here." 

Stanton himself refers to this instance as follows: 

"Stanton, you cannot go. Reconstruction is more 
difficult and dangerous than construction or destruc- 
tion. You have been our main reliance; you must 
help us through the final act. The bag is filled. It 
must be tied, and tied securely. Some knots slip; 
yours do not. You understand the situation better 
than anybody else, and it is my wish and the country's 
that you remain." 



LINCOLN THE LEADER 331 

Stanton bowed to the will that was stronger than 
his own, and continued his duties. 

During the campaign for re-election there was no 
influence in the Cabinet so strongly and successfully 
exerted in the President's favor as that by Edwin M. 
Stanton, and during Lincoln's latter days the rela- 
tions between them were as cordial and confidential 
as that between Lincoln and any other member of his 
Cabinet, and as the President passed away by the bullet 
of Booth, the great Stanton, with tears trickhng down 
his cheeks, pathetically observed: 

"Now he belongs to the ages." 

There is no higher test of leadership than ability 
to lead in adversity and defeat. 

When we think of all the troubles, defeats, and dis- 
asters that befell Abraham Lincoln and his administra- 
tion during his first three years in office, we wonder 
why he was not driven to desperation. We wonder 
what great faith and power could have sustained liim 
in his loyalty to liberty and his dedication to democracy. 
None but his divine dedication. 

With Greeley's cry "On to Richmond" before we 
were ready, which was demonstrated at Bull Run; 
with Fremont's precipitous emancipation pohcy in 
Missouri, which had to be reversed; with McClellan's 
procrastination and petty complaints of executive 
interference; with the Trent affair, in which Captain 
Wilkes was made a hero and the national demand, for 
the time, was to uphold his action, all of which had to 
be reversed by the President and Secretary Seward; 
with Cameron's gross mismanagement in the Depart- 
ment of War; with the death of his son Willie; with 
the failure of his policy of emancipation with com- 
pensation; with the defeats at Fredericksburg and 



332 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Chancellorsville, and the failure of McClellan to follow 
up his victory at Antietam and that of Meade to 
follow up his victory at Gettysburg; with stocks fall- 
ing, and troops reduced and five big Northern States 
repudiating the administration in their elections, we 
wonder how the President ever survived so many 
failures, so many defeats, so many embarrassments. 
Through it all, not only the opposition press, but 
many of his own party, charged the responsibiUty for 
the whole series of political troubles and military dis- 
asters to the President of the United States. 

His preservation through it all seems well-nigh prov- 
idential. Yet all this while he was searching intently 
for a general, and finally found him in the silent 
man, U. S. Grant. Thenceforth victory became as 
frequent as defeat had been frequent. 

Lincoln was always laboring to right the wrongs to 
others, but he never lowered himself to the point of 
attempting to right any wrong to himself. For his 
own justification he depended upon the logic of time 
and events. 

Public leadership, to be successful, must proceed 
from an intelligent dedication to a great cause. A 
complete and correct view of that cause is impossible 
if it shall be clouded by envyings, jealousies, personal 
likes and dislikes. 

The question, after all, is. What instruments and 
individuals will best promote the cause? That was 
always the crucial question with Abraham Lincoln. 

Emerson has aptly expressed this trait of Lincoln 
as follows: 

''His heart was as great as the world, but there was 
no room in it to hold the memory of a wrong." 



CHAPTER XXII 
LINCOLN ON PEACE 

Abraham Lincoln was a man of peace — the peace 
of justice, the peace of honor, the peace of the Union. 
He not only believed in it, he would fight for it, he 
would die for it. 

From the day of his nomination for the presidency, 
May 18, 1860, until the day of his inauguration, March 
4, 1861, he made no pubhc statement of his policies, 
either before the election or afterward. There were 
not even any front-porch speeches or pubhc letters 
or interviews. This has been referred to in another 
chapter. 

The nearest approach to any utterance upon the 
menacing situation then presented was at Philadelphia, 
at Independence Hall, on February 22, 1861, when he 
said: 

"It was not there mere matter of separation of the 
colonies from the motherland, but that sentiment in 
the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty, 
not alone to the people of this country, but hope to 
all the world, for all future time. It was that which 
gave promise that in due time the weight would be 
lifted from the shoulders of all men and that all should 
have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied 
in the Declaration of Independence. Now, my friends, 
can this country be saved on that basis? If it can, I 
will consider myself one of the happiest men in the 
world if I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved 
upon that principle, it will be truly awful. But if this 

333 



334 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

country cannot be saved without giving up that prin- 
ciple, I was about to say I would rather be assassinated 
on this spot than surrender it. Now, in my view of 
the present aspect of affairs, there is no need of blood- 
shed and war. There is no necessity for it. I am not 
in favor of such a course; and I may say in advance 
that there will be no bloodshed unless it be forced upon 
the Government. The Government will not use force, 
unless force is used against it." 

Touching this matter of war, Lincoln said near the 
close of his first inaugural: 

"In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, 
and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. 
The Goverimient will not assail you. You can have 
no conflict, without being yourselves the aggressors. 
You have no oath registered in Heaven to destroy 
the Government while I shall have the most solemn 
one to 'preserve, protect, and defend' it." 

The President and his Cabinet had been divided 
upon provisions and reinforcements for Fort Sumter. 
Lincoln was for the policy, Seward and Cameron 
against it, but finally the relief commission sailed out 
of New York, April 9. The opening gun against Fort 
Sumter was fired at 4.30 a. m., April 12. Civil War 
had begun. 

On April 15 he issued a proclamation calling for 
75,000 militia 'Ho favor, facilitate and aid this effort 
to maintain the honor, the integrity and the existence 
of our national union and the perpetuity of popular 
government and to redress wrongs already long enough 
endured." 

The firing on Fort Sumter unified the South, but 
in an even greater degree it unified the North for 
the defense of the Union. 



LINCOLN ON PEACE 335 

In 1863 at Gettysburg Lincoln avowed his purpose 
to prosecute the war to a successful issue in the use 
of these words : 

''It is for us who live rather to be dedicated here to 
the unfinished work which they who fought here have 
thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be 
here dedicated to the great task remaining before us 
that from these honored dead we take increased devo- 
tion to that cause for which they gave the last full 
measure of devotion; that we here solemnly resolve 
that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this 
Nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom 
and that government of the people by the people and 
for the people shall not perish from the earth." 

The year following, 1864, he avows the same plain 
and persistent purpose. 

A great fair was being held at Philadelphia, June 16, 
1864, for the benefit of the United States Sanitary 
Commission, one of the great charities of that day that 
was doing much to relieve the horrors and sufferings 
of war. At this fair President Lincoln was an honored 
guest and made a brief address, in which, among other 
things, he said: 

"They [these charities] . . . give proof that the 
national resources are not at all exhausted, and that 
the national spirit of patriotism is even firmer and 
stronger than at the commencement of the war. 

"It is a pertinent question often asked in the mind 
privately, and from one to the other, when is the war 
to end ? Surely I feel as deep an interest in this ques- 
tion as any other question; but I do not wish to name 
a day, a month, or year, when it is to end. I do not 
wish to run any risk of seeing the time come without 
our being ready for the end, for fear of disappointment 



336 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

because the time had come and not the end. We ac- 
cepted this war for an object, a worthy object, and the war 
will end when that object is attained. Under God, I hope 
it will never end until that time. Speaking of the pres- 
ent campaign, General Grant is reported to have said 
'I am going through on this Une if it takes all summer.' 
This war has taken three years; it was begun or ac- 
cepted upon the hne of restoring the national authority 
over the whole national domain, and for the American 
people, as far as my knowledge enables me to speak, I 
say we are going through on this line if it takes three 
years more." 

At the Democratic National Convention in 1864 a 
direct and distinct demand was made for a cessation 
of hostilities. Vallandigham was one of the leading 
spirits of the convention and made the platform. 
Upon the peace platform stood a war candidate, Gen- 
eral George B. McClellan. McClellan himself repudi- 
ated the platform for peace, and what was left of it 
was soon shot to death by General Grant, General 
Sherman, and Admiral Farragut. 

Lincoln's re-election had been in grave doubt during 
the summer of 1864. He himself at one time fully 
expected defeat. In which event what would be, and 
should be, the leading question in his mind ? He wrote 
it down on a slip of paper, had his Cabinet members put 
their names upon the back without noting its con- 
tents, and folding it up, laid it away. That paper read: 

" Executive Mansion 
" Washington, August 23, 1864. 
"This morning, as for some days past, it seems ex- 
ceedingly probable that this administration will not 
be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co- 
operate with the President-elect as to save the Union 



LINCOLN ON PEACE 337 

between the election and the inauguration; as he will 
have secured his election on such ground that he can- 
not possibly save it afterward. 

"A. Lincoln." 

The November election brought much encourage- 
ment to Lincoln and the administration, and in his 
message to Congress in December, 1864, among other 
things, he said: 

''On careful consideration of all the evidence accessi- 
ble, it seems to me that no attempt at negotiation with 
the insurgent leader could result in any good. He 
would accept nothing short of severance of the Union 
— precisely what we will not and cannot give. His dec- 
larations to this effect are explicit and oft repeated. 
He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no 
excuse to deceive ourselves. He cannot voluntarily 
re-accept the Union; we cannot voluntarily yield it. 
Between him and us the issue is distinct, simple, and 
inflexible." 

It may not be amiss here as showing the unselfish 
patriotism of Abraham Lincoln infinitely above any 
personal or political consideration for himself, that 
during the summer of 1864, when the army was in need 
of more troops, he issued another draft that aroused 
much adverse public sentiment, because Grant and 
Sherman and the other generals needed them, though 
his political friends all advised him against it as a bad 
piece of pohtics and one that would imperil his elec- 
tion. Nevertheless, he said: 

"We must lose nothing even if I am defeated. I 
am quite willing the people should understand the 
issue. My re-election will mean that the rebellion is 
to be crushed by force of arms." 

And on July 18 he called for 500,000 volunteers for 



338 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

one, two, and three years. There is real courage and 
real heroism for us. 

Read again that part of his second inaugural that 
apphes to this same situation, with a purpose as firm 
and as fearless as the everlasting rock: 

"Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that 
this mighty scourge of war may soon pass away. Yet, 
if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled 
by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of un- 
requited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of 
blood drawn with the lash shall be paid with another 
drawn with the sword; as was said three thousand 
years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judgments of 
the Lord are true and righteous altogether.' 

"With mahce toward none, with charity for all, 
with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see 
the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are 
in, . . . to do all which may achieve and cherish a 
just and a lasting peace among ourselves and with all 
nations." 

I fear some of us remember too much the words, 
"With mahce toward none, with charity for all," and 
forget Lincoln's reference to "firmness in the right, as 
God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish 
the work we are in, . . . to do all which may achieve 
and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves 
and with all nations." 

Lincoln was persistently plagued during his admin- 
istration by the pestiferous and perverse peace man, 
who was conspicuous, not only among his pohtical op- 
ponents, but even among his professed friends. It 
would be impossible, as well as inadvisable, in a work 
of this scope to consider all of these negotiations. It 
will be sufficient to note generally that Lincoln had 



LINCOLN ON PEACE 339 

no faith in any of them after the bombardment of 
Fort Sumter. 

One of the most vociferous and troublesome of the 
peace agitators was one Vallandigham, a briUiant, 
capable, and perhaps well-meaning man, but intensely- 
partisan. In 1863 he gave Lincoln and the Union 
cause serious trouble and embarrassment by his public 
addresses to the effect that the war was "a, wicked, 
cruel and unnecessary war"; "a war not being waged 
for the preservation of the Union"; ''a war for the pur- 
pose of crushing out liberty and erecting a despotism." 

He further said ''that if the administration had so 
wished the war could have been honorably terminated 
months ago"; that "peace might have been honorably 
obtained by listening to the proposed intermediation 
of France," etc. 

He was arrested by General Burnside, tried, and 
found guilty, sentenced to "close confinement in some 
fortress of the United States." Finally he was sent 
to the Confederate lines and from there went to Canada. 
Later he ran for governor of Ohio on the Democratic 
ticket, and was overwhelmingly beaten by General 
Brough by some ninety thousand. 

Numerous protests were sent to President Lincoln 
against the treatment accorded Vallandigham, espe- 
cially by "New York Democrats" and "Ohio Demo- 
crats." Lincoln answered these protests, and in one 
of his replies said: 

" . . .he who dissuades one man from volunteer- 
ing, or induces one soldier to desert, weakens the Union 
cause as much as he who kills a Union soldier in battle. 
Yet this dissuasion or inducement may be so con- 
ducted as to be no defined crime of which any civil 
court would take cognizance." 



340 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Among Lincoln's friends there are two instances, 
however, that are worthy of special mention. Of this 
peace class there is no better example than that of 
Horace Greeley. Greeley was as brilUant and well 
meaning as he was erratic and unpractical. He it was 
who at the beginning of the war was in favor of "letting 
the erring sisters go in peace." 

In July, 1864, Greeley received a letter advising 
that there were in Canada two ambassadors of the 
rebel government with full power to negotiate peace. 
Greeley enclosed this letter to Lincoln, conmaenting 
that he thought the matter deserved attention. 

He also wrote Lincoln in that connection, saying: 

"1 venture to remind you that our bleeding, bank- 
rupt, almost dying country, longs for peace — shudders 
at the prospect of fresh conscriptions, of further whole- 
sale devastations, and of new rivers of human blood; 
and a wide-spread conviction that the government 
and its supporters are not anxious for peace, and do 
not improve proffered opportunities to achieve it, is 
doing great harm now, and is morally certain, unless 
removed, to do far greater in the approaching elec- 
tions." 

To that letter the President replied as follows: 

''If you can find any person, anywhere, professing 
to have any proposition of Jefferson Davis, in writing, 
embracing the restoration of the Union and abandon- 
ment of slavery, whatever else it embraces, say to him 
that he may come to me with you." 

Greeley repHed to the President, stating in substance 
that he had information upon which he could rely that 
two persons had been duly commissioned and empow- 
ered to negotiate for peace and were at that time not 
far from Niagara Falls. Their names were Clement 



LINCOLN ON PEACE 341 

C. Clay, of Alabama, and Jacob Thompson, of Missis- 
sippi. 

Lincoln later wrote Mr. Greeley: 

"I am disappointed that you have not already 
reached here with those commissioners. If they would 
consent to come on being shown my letter to you of 
the ninth inst., show that and this to them; and, if 
they will consent to come on the terms stated in the 
former, bring them. I not only intend a sincere effort 
for peace, but I intend that you shall be a personal 
witness that it is made." 

Lincoln had no confidence in the commissioners, 
or their authority, but he resolved to throw the re- 
sponsibility for it upon Greeley by appointing him as 
a commissioner to interview and negotiate with the 
commissioners from the South. 

Lincoln sent Major Hay to Niagara with the fol- 
lowing letter: 

"Executive Mansion, 
"Washington, July 18, 1864. 
''To Whom It May Concern: 

"Any proposition which embraces the restoration 
of peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the 
abandonment of slavery, and which comes by and 
with an authority that can control the armies now at 
war against the United States, will be received and 
considered by the Executive government of the United 
States, and will be met on liberal terms on substantial 
and collateral points; and the bearer or bearers thereof 
shall have safe-conduct both ways. 

''Abraham Lincoln." 

To a friend afterward Lincoln said his appointment 
of Greeley arose out of the fact that he had no con- 



342 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

fidence whatsoever either in the authority of the 
Southern commissioners or in their disposition for 
peace, and he proposed to appoint Greeley and let 
him "crack that nut." 

Later on Francis P. Blair, Jr., was infected with 
the same peace germ and sought to enlist Lincoln to 
another conference with three commissioners from the 
South— Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and 
John A. Campbell — all members of the Confederate 
Government. The result of Blair's mediation was that 
Secretary Seward received from Lincoln authority 
to meet said commissioners from the Confederate 
Government, with these specific instructions submitted 
by President Lincoln : 

"1. The restoration of the national authority 
throughout all the States. 

''2. No receding by the executive of the United 
States on the slavery question from the position as- 
sumed thereon in the late annual message to Congress, 
and in preceding documents. 

''3. No cessation of hostihties short of an end of 
the war and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the 
government." 

Generous as Lincoln could be and generous as he 
generally was to a foe, he reaUzed that the issue here 
was inflexible and was not a subject for negotiation 
between the North and South, except upon the basis 
that he above outhned. Some things cannot be com- 
promised. 

During the latter months of Lincoln's life he had 
given much attention to the subject of reconstruction 
in the South. He anticipated the victories of Grant 
and Sherman that must soon end the war. He fore- 
saw some of the divisions among the Northern states- 



LINCOLN ON PEACE 343 

men as to the policies that would be advocated for 
reconstruction. One of the great questions footballed 
through Congress was this, Are the States that are 
members of the Confederate Government in the Union 
or out of the Union? 

Lincoln handled this question in his own inimit- 
able way in the following pointed and pertinent lan- 
guage: 

"We all agree, that the seceded States, so called, 
are out of their proper practical relation with the Union, 
and that the sole object of the government, civil and 
military, in regard to those States is to again get them 
into the proper practical relation. I believe that it is 
not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without 
deciding or even considering whether these States have 
ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding 
themselves safely at home, it would be utterly imma- 
terial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all 
join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper 
practical relations between these States and the Union, 
and each forever after innocently indulge his own 
opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the States 
from without into the Union, or only gave them proper 
assistance, they never having been out of it." 

Lincoln as a law^^er and logician never had any 
patience with distinguishing between tweedledee and 
tweedledum. He always cut the "Gordian knot" of 
technicality and got into the heart and substance of 
things. He did that as a lawyer, he did it more as a 
statesman. 

At the bottom of the reconstruction pohcy was the 
13th Amendment to the Constitution, that was to for- 
ever rivet the rights of freemen to the late slave. It 
was to put the military emancipation proclamation 



344 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

into our civil constitution. But Booth's bullet did its 
deadly work on April 14, 1865. 

The soul of the broad-gauged, far-sighted, generous, 
merciful Lincoln took its flight to another country, 
and at the very hour the South, no less than the North, 
needed him most. 

The patient, considerate, and troubled administra- 
tion of Abraham Lincoln, free from all hate, maUce, or 
revenge, was over. Radicalism and rancor were now 
to design and direct the nation's policies of recon- 
structing the South. What an awful story of trouble 
and terror, crime and crimination followed in the wake 
of Andrew Johnson, his successor ! 

Surely it could never have occurred with Lincoln's 
wise and humane personality in command at Wash- 
ington. He indicated enough of his plans for the 
South before his martyrdom to assure us of the most 
benevolent, generous, and considerate policies for the 
^^tetoration and reconstruction of the South, The reign 
of terror, the carpetbag government, the Kuklux Klan 
and all were the natural and ahnost necessary result of 
Lincoln's assassination. 



CHAPTER XXIII 
LINCOLN THE MOST UNSELFISH MAN 

Time would fail me to detail the many instances re- 
corded in the various biographies of Lincoln exhibiting 
almost divine unselfishness; from his kindness to the 
returning soldier in Kentucky, to his companions and 
neighbors at Gentry ville in Indiana, toward the ''plain 
folk" of New Salem, Illinois, his professional conduct 
at Springfield and his official life at Washington. But 
some of these incidents are so strikingly significant, so 
exceptional and surprising that they should be given 
more than mere mention in surveying the unselfish 
character and service of his magnanimous life. 

Few great historical characters who were possesse'^. 
of the ambition of Abraham Lincoln were so utterly 
free from envy and jealousy of their fellows. Though 
the leader of the Whig party in Illinois as early as 
1840, when he was its unanimous candidate for speaker 
in the general assembly, his defeat for nomination for 
Congress in 1842 by John,J. Hardin did not sour him. 

He came back manfully in 1844, when he was again 
defeated by Edward M, Baker. He loyally and en- 
thusiastically supported Baker and stumped the dis- 
trict for him. 

In 1846 he was again a candidate and was this time 
nominated. During his term in Congress he received a 
letter from his old-time partner, Herndon, complaining 
that the young men of Illinois were being rudely and 
inconsiderately pushed aside by the older men, whom 

345 



346 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

Herndon characterized as ''the old fossils in the party 
who were constantly holding the young man back." 
Mr. Lincoln administered a very gentle and gracious 
rebuke in the following letter; under date of July 10, 
1848, he wrote: 

" Dear William : 

"Your letter covering the newspaper slips was re- 
ceived last night. The subject of that letter is ex- 
ceedingly painful to me, and I cannot but think there 
is some mistake in your impression of the motives of 
the old men. I suppose I am now one of the old men; 
and I declare on my veracity, which I think is good 
with you, that nothing could afford me more satisfac- 
tion than to learn that you and others of my young 
friends at home were doing battle in the contest and 
endearing themselves to the people and taking a stand 
far above any I have ever been able to reach in their 
admiration. I cannot conceive that other men feel 
differently. Of course I cannot demonstrate what I 
say; but I was young once, and I am sure I was never 
ungenerously thrust back. I hardly know what to 
say. The way for a young man to rise is to improve 
himself every way he can, never suspecting that any- 
body wishes to hinder him. Allow me to assure you 
that suspicion and jealousy never did help any man in 
any situation." . . . 

The petty disappointments and personal insults that 
come and go in one's personal and public life were either 
ignored or forgotten by him. He always kept his eye 
on the "central idea" rather than some personal griev- 
ance or insult. 

Lincoln was not only not selfish, he was constitu- 



LINCOLN THE MOST UNSELFISH MAN 347 

tionally unselfish in the superlative degree. Nowhere 
was this better demonstrated than in connection with 
his Cabinet. Not a man in it was chosen because of 
his personal loyalty and ability to advance the political 
fortunes of Abraham Lincoln. Upon the contrary, the 
primary and paramount idea throughout his choice of 
Cabinet members was the crystallization of public sen- 
timent for the Union. 

This ''frontier lawyer" of Duff Armstrong and the 
Widow Wright, of the Illinois prairies, as he was known 
in the East, had now become chief counsel for the 
American people in the great governmental court at 
Washington, and in this case no Stanton would elbow 
him out of the great cause to which he had dedicated 
his life. 

He not only continued as counsel, but as chief coun- 
sel, and his Cabinet ministers with one glaring and un- 
pardonable exception, recognized who the chief counsel 
was. 

All this came about, not by any selfish assertion of 
power, not by any personal vanity, but by reason of 
superiority of sense, his judgment, his foresight, his 
fairness and firmness, his loyalty to liberty and his 
devotion to democracy. 

We see him again patiently reading Seward's note, 
"Some Thoughts for the Consideration of the Presi- 
dent," with all its haughtiness, its ungracious insults, 
and we see again the President's fair, firm, and conclu- 
sive answer. 

No one will ever know how much his personal pride, 
during the first year or two of Seward's service, was 
hurt and cut to the quick. But he ignored it all, and 
later these two were the most faithful friends in one 
common cause, Union and Liberty. 



348 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

No one can ever know the continuous, intolerable, 
petty, and paltry faultfinding of Chase, his treason- 
able undermining of the President's political loyalty 
and fortunes, and his continual quarrelling with other 
members of the Cabinet, and how long thereafter the 
President kept him, feeling that while he was disloyal 
to A. Lincoln, he was rendering efficient service to 
Uncle Sam. Then finally, when it was discovered that 
he was tunnelling under Seward through the United 
States Senate, and also under Lincoln and his policies, 
it was inevitable that the President should accept 
Chase's third resignation. Chase had literally forced 
himself out of the Cabinet. 

And then again upon Taney's death, when a new 
chief justice had to be chosen, how easy it would 
have been for Mr. Lincoln to have appointed some one 
experienced and qualified for that honorable place in 
our national jurisprudence, with no thought at all of 
Chase, and when some of his friends ventured to urge 
his name, which in view of the relations between the 
secretary of the treasury and the President, would 
seem the sheerest effrontery, how easy it was for Lin- 
coln to say: "Now is my chance to humiliate him, to 
get even with him." 

Lincoln's appointment of Chase under the circum- 
stances of their past relationship, and Chase's treat- 
ment of him, as shown by the latter's own diary, as 
well as the many disclosures of the biographies of both 
of them, demonstrate a magnanimity upon the part 
of Abraham Lincoln so rare and so rich in human kind- 
ness that it almost stamps him as divine. Could 
you have done it ? Would you have done it ? Would 
any other President have done it that you ever knew of ? 

And then to Stanton's conduct, with all its dis- 



LINCOLN THE MOST UNSELFISH MAN 349 

courtesies, its insults in the Federal Court at Cincin- 
nati, in 1855, as noted in previous chapters. To have 
overlooked this "professional outrage," this "personal 
insult," to have laid aside his bitterest criticisms, given 
wide publicity in Washington and the country, in 
which he characterized Lincoln's administration as 
"political imbecihty," to have taken this man Stanton 
into his official family in charge of the great office 
of secretary of war, is surely too much to expect of 
human flesh. And yet Lincoln did it. Could you 
have done it? Would you have done it? Has any 
other President ever done it? 

A reasonable amount of criticism is a good thing for 
a public officer. It keeps reminding him of the fact 
that after all he is only a public servant, a public agent, 
a pubhc representative. He admits it the day before 
election. He too often forgets it the day after. Such 
criticism, as a rule, only makes big men bigger and lit- 
tle men littler, both eminently desirable results in the 
evolution of government. 

"With malice toward none and charity for all" — 
this literally personified Abraham Lincoln throughout 
his life, and this spirit of the man from Illinois still 
reminds us that his "soul goes marching on," and 
that it is receiving a new life and a new loyalty in 
his own fair country — Our America. 



CHAPTER XXIV 
LINCOLN'S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 

RELIGION 

From an interview between Mr. Newton Bateman, superintendent of 
public instruction of Illinois, and Lincoln, in 1860, touching a 
poll-book of Springfield, particularly relating to the ministers of 
that city. 

''Here are twenty- three ministers of different de- 
nominations, and all of them are against me but three; 
and here are a great many prominent members of the 
churches, a very large majority of whom are against me. 
Mr. Bateman, I am not a Christian — God knows I 
would be one — but I have carefully read the Bible, 
and I do not so understand this book"; (and he drew 
from his bosom a pocket New Testament). ''These 
men well know," he continued, "that I am for free- 
dom in the territories, freedom everywhere as far as 
the Constitution and laws will permit, and that my 
opponents are for slavery. They know this, and yet, 
with this book in their hands, in the light of which 
human bondage cannot live a moment, they are going 
to vote against me. I do not understand it at all." 

Here Mr. Lincoln paused — paused for long minutes, 
his features surcharged with emotion. Then he rose 
and walked up and down the room in the effort to re- 
tain or regain his self-possession. Stopping at last, 
he said, with a trembhng voice and his cheeks wet 
with tears: 

"I know there is a God, and that He hates injustice 
and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know that 
His hand is in it. If He has a place and work for me 

350 



LINCOLN'S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 351 

— and I think He has — I beheve I am ready. I am 
nothing, but truth is everything. I know I am right 
because I know that hberty is right, for Christ teaches 
it, and Christ is God. I have told them that a house 
divided against itself cannot stand, and Christ and 
reason say the same ; and they will find it so. Douglas 
don't care whether slavery is voted up or voted down, 
but God cares, and humanity cares, and I care; and 
with God's help I shall not fail. I may not see the 
end; but it will come, and I shall be vindicated; and 
these men will find that they have not read their 
Bibles aright." 

Much of this was uttered as if he were speaking to 
himself, and with a sad and earnest solemnity of manner 
impossible to be described. After a pause, he resumed: 
"Doesn't it appear strange that men can ignore the 
moral aspects of this contest? A revelation could 
not make it plainer to me that slavery or the govern- 
ment must be destroyed. The future would be some- 
thing awful, as I look at it, but for this rock on which 
I stand" (alluding to the Testament which he still 
held in his hand), "especially with the knowledge of 
how these ministers are going to vote. It seems as 
if God had borne with this thing (slavery) until the 
very teachers of religion have come to defend it from 
the Bible, and to claim for it a divine character and 
sanction; and now the cup of iniquity is full, and the 
vials of wrath will be poured out." 

PERSUADING MEN 

From a temperance speech delivered before the Springfield Washing- 
tonian Temperance Society, February 22, 1842. 

"When the conduct of men is designed to be in- 
fluenced, persuasion, kind, unassuming persuasion, 



352 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

should ever be adopted. It is an old and true maxim 
'that a drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon 
of gall' So with men. If you would win a man to 
your cause, first convince him that you are his sincere 
friend. Therein is a drop of honey that catches his 
heart, which, say what he will, is the great highroad 
to his reason, and which, when once gained, you will 
find but little trouble in convincing his judgment of 
the justice of your cause, if indeed that cause really 
be a just one. On the contrary, assume to dictate to 
his judgment, or to command his action, or to mark 
him as one to be shunned and despised, and he will 
retreat within himself, close all the avenues to his head 
and his heart; and though your cause be naked truth 
itself, transformed to the heaviest lance, harder than 
steel, and sharper than steel can be made, and though 
you throw it with more than herculean force and pre- 
cision, you shall be no more able to pierce him than 
to penetrate the hard shell of a tortoise with a rye straw. 
Such is man, and so must he be understood by those 
who would lead him, even to his own best interests. 

"Few can be induced to labor exclusively for pos- 
terity; and none will do it enthusiastically. Posterity 
has done nothing for us ; and theorize on it as we may, 
practically we shall do very little for it, unless we are 
made to think we are at the same time doing some- 
thing for ourselves." 

TEMPERANCE 

From the same temperance address. 

''Turn now to the temperance revolution. In it 
we shall find a stronger bondage broken, a viler slavery 
manumitted, a greater tyrant deposed; in it, more 



LINCOLN'S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 353 

of want supplied, more disease healed, more sorrow 
assuaged. By it no orphans starving, no widows weep- 
ing. By it, none wounded in feeling, none injured in 
interest; even the dram-maker and dram-seller will 
have glided into other occupations so gradually as 
never to have felt the change, and will stand ready 
to join all others in the universal song of gladness. 
And what a noble ally this to the cause of political 
freedom, with such an aid its march cannot fail to be 
on and on, till every son of earth shall drink in rich fru- 
ition the sorrow-quenching draughts of perfect liberty. 
Happy day when — all appetites controlled, all poisons 
subdued, all matter subjected — mind, all conquering 
mind, shall live and move, the monarch of the world. 
Glorious consummation ! Hail, fall of fury ! Reign 
of reason, all hail ! 

"And when the victory shall be complete, — when 
there shall be neither a slave nor a drunkard on the 
earth, — how proud the title of that land which may 
truly claim to be the birthplace and the cradle of both 
those revolutions that shall have ended in that vic- 
tory. How nobly distinguished that people who shall 
have planted and nurtured to maturity both the polit- 
ical and moral freedom of their species." 

LABOR 
From the President's Message of December 3, 1861. 

"It is not needed nor fitting here that a general ar- 
gument should be made in favor of popular institu- 
tions; but there is one point, with its connections, 
not so hackneyed as most others, to which I ask a 
brief attention. It is the effort to place capital on an 
equal footing with, if not above, labor, in the struc- 
ture of government. It is assumed that labor is avail- 



354 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

able only in connection with capital; that nobody- 
labors unless somebody else, owning capital, somehow 
by the use of it induces him to labor. This assumed, 
it is next considered whether it is best that capital 
shall hire laborers, and thus induce them to work by 
their own consent, or buy them, and drive them to 
it without their consent. Having proceeded thus far, 
it is naturally concluded that all laborers are either 
hired laborers or what we call slaves. And, further, 
it is assumed that whoever is once a hired laborer is 
fixed in that condition for Ufe. 

''Now, there is no such relation between capital 
and labor as assumed, nor is there any such thing as 
a free man being fixed for hfe in the condition of a 
hired laborer. Both these assumptions are false, and 
all inferences from them are groundless. 

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. 
Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have 
existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the 
superior of capital, and deserves much the higher con- 
sideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy 
of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied 
that there is, and probably always will be, a relation 
between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. 
The error is in assuming that the whole of labor of 
the community exists within that relation. A few men 
own capital, and that few avoid labor themselves, and 
with their capital hire or buy another few to labor for 
them. A large majority belong to neither class — 
neither work for others nor have others working for 
them. In most of the Southern States a majority of 
the whole people, of all colors are neither slaves nor 
masters; while in the Northern a large majority are 
neither hirers nor hired. Men with their famihes — 
wives, sons, and daughters — work for themselves, on 



LINCOLN'S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 355 

their farms, in their houses, and in their shops taking 
the whole product to themselves, and asking no favors 
of capital on the one hand, nor of hired laborers or 
slaves on the other. It is not forgotten that a con- 
siderable number of persons mingle their own labor 
with capital — that is, they labor with their own hands 
and also buy or hire others to labor for them; but 
this is only a mixed and not a distinct class. No prin- 
ciple stated is disturbed by the existence of this mixed 
class. 

"Again, as has already been said, there is not, of 
necessity, any such thing as the free hired laborer 
being fixed to that condition for hfe. Many indepen- 
dent men everywhere in these States, a few years back 
in their Uves, were hired laborers. The prudent, penni- 
less beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, 
saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for 
himself, then labors on his own account another while, 
and at length hires another new beginner to help him. 
This is the just and generous and prosperous system 
which opens the way to all — gives hope to all, and 
consequent energy and progress and improvement of 
condition to all. No men living are more worthy to 
be trusted than those who toil up from poverty — none 
less incUned to take or touch aught which they have 
not honestly earned. Let them beware of surrender- 
ing a political power which they already possess, and 
which, if surrendered, will surely be used to close the 
door of advancement against such as they, and to fix 
new disabilities and burdens upon them, till all of lib- 
erty shall be lost." 

From the President's Message to Congress, July 4, 1861. 

"This is essentially a people's contest. On the side 
of the Union it is a struggle for maintaining in the 



356 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

world that form and substance of government whose 
leading object is to elevate the condition of men — to 
lift artificial weights from all shoulders; to clear the 
paths of laudable pursuit for all; to afford all an un- 
fettered start and a fair chance in the race of Hfe. 
Yielding to partial and temporary departures, from 
necessity, this is the leading object of the government 
for whose existence we contend. 

"I am most happy to believe that the plain people 
understand and appreciate this. It is worthy of note 
that while in this, the government's hour of trial, large 
numbers of those in the army and navy who have been 
favored with the officers have resigned and proved 
false to the hand which had pampered them, not one 
common soldier or common sailor is known to have 
deserted his flag." 

AGRICULTURE 
From an address before an agricultural society, September 30, 1859. 

"I know nothing so pleasant to the mind as the dis- 
covery of anything that is at once new and valuable — 
nothing that so lightens and sweetens toil as the hope- 
ful pursuit of such discovery. And how vast and how 
varied a field is agriculture for such discovery ! The 
mind already trained to thought in the country school, 
or higher school, cannot fail to find there an exhaust- 
less source of enjoyment. Every blade of grass is a 
study; and to produce two where there was but one 
is both a profit and a pleasure. And not grass alone, 
but soils, seeds, and seasons — hedges, ditches, and 
fences — draining, droughts, and irrigation — plowing, 
hoeing, and harrowing — ^reaping, mowing, and thresh- 
ing — saving crops, pests of crops, diseases of crops, and 



LINCOLN'S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 357 

what will prevent or cure them — implements, utensils, 
and machines, their relative merits, and how to im- 
prove them — hogs, horses, and cattle — sheep, goats, 
and poultry — trees, shrubs, fruits, plants and flowers — 
the thousand things of which these are specimens — 
each a world of study within itself. 

"In all this, book-learning is available. A capacity 
and taste for reading gives access to whatever has al- 
ready been discovered by others. It is the key, or 
one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And 
not only so: it gives a relish and facility for success- 
fully pursuing the unsolved ones. The rudiments of 
science are available, highly available. Some knowl- 
edge of botany assists in dealing with the vegetable 
world — with all growing crops. Chemistry assists 
in the analysis of soils, selection and application of 
manures, and in numerous other ways. The mechan- 
ical branches of natural philosophy are ready help in 
almost everything, but especially in reference to im- 
plements and machinery. 

"The thought recurs that education — cultivated 
thought — can best be combined with agricultural 
labor, or any labor, on the principle of thorough work; 
that careless, half performed, slovenly work makes no 
place for such combination; and thorough work, again 
renders sufficient the smallest quantity of ground to 
each man; and this, again, conforms to what must 
occur in a world less inclined to wars and more devoted 
to the arts of peace than heretofore. Population must 
increase rapidly, more rapidly than in former times, 
and ere long the most valuable of all arts will be the 
art of deriving a comfortable subsistence from the 
smallest area of soil. No community whose every 
member possesses this art, can ever be the victim of op- 



358 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

pression in any of its forms. Such community will be 
alike independent of crowned kings, money kings, 
and land kings. 



"The ambition for broad acres leads to poor farm- 
ing, even with men of energy. I scarcely ever knew 
a mammoth farm to sustain itself, much less to return 
a profit upon the outlay. I have more than once known 
a man to spend a respectable fortune upon one, fail, 
and leave it, and then some man of modest aim get 
a small fraction of the ground, and make a good living 
upon it. Mammoth farms are hke tools or weapons 
which are too heavy to be handled; ere long they are 
thrown aside at a great loss." 

RECONSTRUCTION 
From the last public address, April 11, 1865. 

"We meet this evening not in sorrow, but in glad- 
ness of heart. The evacuation of Petersburg and 
Richmond, and the surrender of the principal insur- 
gent army, give hope of a righteous and speedy peace, 
whose joyous expression cannot be restrained. In the 
midst of this, however. He from whom all blessings 
flow must not be forgotten, A call for a national 
thanksgiving is being prepared, and will be duly pro- 
mulgated. Nor must those whose harder part give 
us the cause of rejoicing be overlooked. Their honors 
must not be parceled out with others. I myself was 
near the front, and had the high pleasure of trans- 
mitting much of the good news to you; but no part 
of the honor for plan or execution is mine. To Gen- 
eral Grant, his skilful officers and brave men, all be- 



LINCOLN'S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 359 

longs. The gallant navy stood ready, but was not in 
reach to take active part. 

"The new constitution of Louisiana, declaring 
emancipation for the whole State, practically applies 
the proclamation to the part previously excepted. It 
does not adopt apprenticeship for freed people, and 
it is silent, as it could not well be otherwise, about the 
admission of members to Congress. So that, as it 
applies to Louisiana, every member of the Cabinet 
fully approved the plan. The message went to Con- 
gress, and I received many commendations of the plan, 
written and verbal, and not a single objection to it 
from any professed emancipationist came to my knowl- 
edge until after the news reached Washington that the 
people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance 
with it. From about July, 1862, I had corresponded 
with different persons supposed to be interested (in) 
seeking a reconstruction of a State government for 
Louisiana. When the message of 1863, with the plan 
before mentioned, reached New Orleans, General 
Banks wrote me that he was confident that the people, 
with his military co-operation, would reconstruct sub- 
stantially on that plan. I wrote to him and some of 
them to try it. They tried it, and the result is known. 
Such has been my only agency in getting up the 
Louisiana government. 

"As to sustaining it, my promise is out, as before 
stated. But as bad promises are better broken than 
kept, I shall treat this as a bad promise, and break 
it whenever I shall be convinced that keeping it is 
adverse to the public interest; but I have not yet 
been so convinced. I have been shown a letter on 
this subject, supposed to be an able one, in which the 



360 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

writer expresses regret that my mind has not seemed 
to be definitely fixed on the question whether the 
seceded States, so-called, are in the Union or out of 
it. It would perhaps add astonishment to his regret 
were he to learn that since I have found professed 
Union men endeavoring to make that question, I have 
purposely forborne any public expression upon it. 
As appears to me, that question has not been, nor 
yet is, a practically material one, and that any dis- 
cussion of it, while it thus remains practically imma- 
terial, could have no effect other than the mischievous 
one of dividing our friends. As yet, whatever it may 
hereafter become, that question is bad as the basis 
of a controversy, and good for nothing at all — a merely 
pernicious abstraction. 

''We all agree that the seceded States, so-called, 
are out of their proper practical relation with the Union, 
and that the sole object of the government, civil and 
military, in regard to those States, is to again get them 
into that proper practical relation. I believe that it 
is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this with- 
out deciding or even considering whether these States 
have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Find- 
ing themselves safely at home, it would be utterly 
immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let 
us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the 
proper practical relations between these States and 
the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge 
his own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought 
the States from without into the Union, or only gave 
them proper assistance, they never having been out 
of it. The amount of constituency, so to speak, on 
which the new Louisiana government rests, would 
be more satisfactory to all if it contained 50,000 or 



LINCOLN'S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 361 

30,000, or even 20,000 instead of only about 12,000, 
as it does. It is also unsatisfactory to some that the 
elective franchise is not given to the colored man. I 
would myself prefer that it were now conferred on the 
very intelligent, and on those who serve our cause as 
soldiers. 

** Still, the question is not whether the Louisiana 
government, as it stands, is quite all that is desirable. 
The question is, will it be wiser to take it as it is and 
help to improve it, or to reject and disperse it? Can 
Louisiana be brought into proper practical relation 
with the Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding 
her new State government? Some twelve thousand 
voters in the heretofore slave State of Louisiana have 
sworn allegiance to the Union, assumed to be the right- 
ful poUtical power of the State, held elections, organized 
a State government, adopted a free-State constitu- 
tion, giving the benefit of public schools equally to 
black and white, and empowering the legislature to 
confer the elective franchise upon the colored man. 
Their legislature has already voted to ratify the con- 
stitutional amendment recently passed by Congress, 
abolishing slavery throughout the nation. These 
12,000 persons are thus fully committed to the Union 
and to perpetual freedom in the State — committed 
to the very things, and nearly all the things, the na- 
tion wants — and they ask the nation's recognition and 
its assistance to make good their committal. 

"Now, if we reject and spurn them, we do our ut- 
most to disorganize and disperse them. We, in effect, 
say to the white man: You are worthless or worse; 
we will neither help you, nor be helped by you. To 
the blacks we say: This cup of liberty which these, 
your old masters, hold to your lips we will dash from 



362 THE VOICE OF LINCOLN 

you and leave you to the chances of gathering the 
spilled and scattered contents in some vague and un- 
defined when, where, and how. If this course, dis- 
couraging and paralyzing both white and black, has 
any tendency to bring Louisiana into proper prac- 
tical relations with the Union, I have so far been un- 
able to perceive it. If, on the contrary, we recognize 
and sustain the new government of Louisiana, the 
converse of all this is made true. We encourage the 
hearts and nerve the arms of the 12,000 to adhere to 
their work, and argue for it, and proselyte for it, and 
fight for it, and feed it, and grow it, and ripen it to 
a complete success. The colored man, too, in seeing 
all united for him, is inspired with vigilance, and energy, 
and daring, to the same end. Grant that he desires 
the elective franchise, will he not attain it sooner by 
saving the already advanced steps toward it than by 
running backward over them? Concede that the 
new government of Louisiana is only what it should 
be as the egg is to the fowl, we shall sooner have the 
fowl by hatching the egg than by smashing it. 

''Again, if we reject Louisiana we also reject one 
vote in favor of the proposed amendment to the na- 
tional Constitution. To meet this proposition it has 
been argued that no more than three-fourths of those 
States which have not attempted secession are neces- 
sary to validly ratify the amendment. I do not commit 
myself against this further than to say that such a 
ratification would be questionable, and sure to be 
persistently questioned, while a ratification by three- 
fourths of all the States would be unquestioned and 
unquestionable. I repeat the question: Can Louisiana 
be brought into proper practical relation with the 
Union sooner by sustaining or by discarding her new 



LINCOLN'S MISCELLANEOUS VIEWS 363 

State government? What has been said of Louisiana 
will apply generally to other States. And yet so great 
peculiarities pertain to each State, and such important 
and sudden changes occur in the same State, and withal 
so new and unprecedented is the whole case that no 
exclusive and inflexible plan can safely be prescribed 
as to details and collaterals. Such exclusive and in- 
flexible plan would surely become a new entangle- 
ment. Important principles may and must be in- 
flexible. In the present situation, as the phrase goes, 
it may be my duty to make some new announcement 
to the people of the South. I am considering, and 
shall not fail to act when satisfied that action will be 
proper." 



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